History of Council 7740

In 1980, the most western Council in Omaha was 5045 at Christ the King. There was a need for additional councils and work was started to develop a K of C in the Millard area.

At the time, I was the deputy Grand Knight at 5045 and had no intentions of leaving that council. The State Council was working with Fr. Paul Schwaab at St. John Vianney Parish in Millard of which I was a parish member. I told them I would help put the Council together, but I would not transfer to it.

On the fourth Thursday of January 1981, the first meeting to start the council was held at St. John Vianney parish. They had some current Knights and some form 100's on men ready to join, but there was not enough and the meeting ended without success. They agreed to try again on the fourth Thursday of February 1981. This would give them a month to get more interest and more form 100's so they could start a council.

Bob Ostdiek was the District Deputy who was working with the State Family to get the council going. On the Sunday before the February meeting I saw Ostdiek in Bellevue where they were holding degrees. I asked him how the new council was coming along and he said he was afraid it would not happen because they had dropped the ball and did not have enough to get it started. It was at that point I made the decision to get more involved and become a part of the new council.

For the next four nights, Bob Ostdiek and I were out every night contacting people, completing form 100's and doing all we could to make it a successful meeting. We needed 30 members to start the council and going into the meeting we did not know if we had enough. I even had two form 100's in my brief case signed by men I worked with at USF&G that were brother knights from 5045, who had no intention of becoming permanent members, but agreed to let me use them if we needed the members to start the council. If I had to use them they would later transfer back to 5045.

At the meeting when it was all put together, we had 32 men to start the council and I did not have to use the two form 100's in my brief case. The council was organized, officers were elected and we were off and running. I accepted the Grand Knight position and Ed Woll was the Financial Secretary. Fr. Paul Schwaab was our Chaplain and I don't recall which men held the other positions.

Our first party was a pot luck dinner at an apartment club house on 96th south of Q Street. Those attending were our Asst. Pastor Fr. Frank Baumert, Mr. & Mrs. Martin Novetny, Ed Woll, Neil and Betty Klein and my wife Barbara and I. It was not a big success but we had fun and we were starting to roll.

In April, we went to our first State Convention. Since we were from Millard and were known as the Millard Council, we were advised to introduce ourselves as being from Millard rather than from Omaha as we would be better accepted by the out state Knights. The convention was in Hastings. Neil, Betty, Ed, Barb and I went to the convention and had a ball, but we paid our own way as our Council funds were almost nil.

It was slow going at first, but we were starting to grow and then we grew to a good size council. Our membership went up and down as other councils started in west Omaha. We had some transfer to St. Vincent de Paul, a dozen or so to St. Stephen the Martyr, but the big numbers, about 95, transferred to St. Wenceslaus and 85 to Mary Our Queen.

The Council can be proud that our second Grand Knight, Rod Hofschulte, went on to the State Family and became State Deputy. After his time with the State Family he went to work for Supreme and is their Regional Program Consultant. Our fourth Grand Knight, Don Ferneding, went on to the State Family and became State Deputy also. We have had several who served as District Deputys and some who held other positions in the State Family.

In the First 75 years of the Knights of Columbus in Nebraska, the city of Omaha had four councils, 0652, 3019, 5045 and 5287. Council 7740 was the fifth Omaha Council and now there are 23 councils in Omaha. We are proud to be part of that growth.

I will let someone else complete the history as this was just the early years.

Robert J. Steinauer
Charter Grand Knight
List of Original Charter Members