Brother Hugo Andrey, SVD (*6 Apr 1939 - +26 Sep 2018)

I met Bro. Hugo Andrey first time in the brother’s novitiate in St. Gabriel 1959.

Back in Switzerland he did 2 years in an Agricultural College and graduated with a special price. I believe it was a wheelbarrow. In 1963 he was appointed to Australia and worked on our 600 head dairy cattle farm for many years. In 1977 he visited Bro. Fridolin Schlierenzauer and myself in PNG. But our "farms" here were too small for him. In 1984 when our farm in Australia was sold he got an appointment to PNG.

He was for a short time in Mingende and then in Kondiu High School, looking after the gardens and the small farm. He had good contact with the students and started a Brass Band. In 1987 Hugo was appointed assistant Novice Master to Fr. Ben Kuhnert.
In 1990-92 he run the Postulancy courses once in Mt. Hagen, once in Ulga and one year in Karap. He loved Nature and helped the postulants to meditate and find God in nature. This was highly appreciated by Fr. Elias Aiyako. Also he took the postulants to the parishes to see the life and work of our confreres first hand.

Bro. Hugo’s love for music made him start an all female brass band at St. Paul’s Secretarial School. He would act as conductor but also train others for that task.
He also helped the Brass band in the now Fr. Peter Secondary of Fatima.
A special attraction was his Alpine Horn and many young people had a go at it, only few managed to produce a sound. One year Bro. Hugo even opened the Mt. Hagen Cultural Show with his Alpine Horn, dressed in the traditional finery of his home province of Freiburg.

In 1994 he was asked to help at Divine Word Institute. Br. Hugo loved young people and was loved by them. He had time for them. He would be available any time to drive them or the staff to the Airport and sick students at night to the Hospital. Prior to the mobile phone Hugo helped many students to get in contact with their families by sharing his landline phone. 

In 1999 Hugo was called back to Australia and served one term as rector for the Epping Community.

In 2002 he was back in Madang at Diwai. He used to play the trumpet, especially at the Anzac day honoring the fallen soldiers with the famous "THE LAST POST".
Hugo was also a bit of a hobby historian and was especially interested in the stories of the first white man Mkolucho Maclay who befriended the people of the Ray Coast of Madang and studied their culture. Hugo even published a small dairy, a collection of quotes from Maclay’s diaries.

Hugo had a special heart for the poor and needy, was very generous, outgoing and always cheerful. He loved taking photos: nature, sunsets and sunrise...
Bro. Hugo had received a LOGOHU AWARD for his work in PNG. He stayedin PNG till 2011 when he left for Switzerland.

Mt. Hagen, October 2018 - Br. Antony Hollenstein, SVD