Jerome Oetgen

Dr. Jerome Oetgen, a Saint Vincent alumnus, has written numerous books about Saint Vincent history, and could arguably be called one of the foremost experts on the topic. His books about Saint Vincent include An American Abbot: Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., 1809-1887; Mission to America: A History of Saint Vincent Archabbey, the First Benedictine Monastery in the United States; Always Forward: Saint Vincent Archabbey 1949-2020; Boniface Wimmer: Letters of An American Abbot; and The Saint Vincent Fire: January 28, 1963. He also helped produce the 2013 Telly Award-winning documentary about the Saint Vincent fire of 1963, Fire and Ice. He has also published numerous articles on the history of the American Benedictines. Always Forward received third place in the history category in the Catholic Press Association 2021 Book Awards.

He taught at universities in the United States, Canada, and the Peoples Republic of China, Lithuania, and Ecuador. He has served as a U.S. diplomat in Latin America and as director of the Latin American Fulbright Program at the United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C.