Fr. Robert Joseph Switanowski, OFM Conv., a priest of the Chicago-based St. Bonaventure Province of the Conventual Franciscans, formerly of Peoria, Ill., died Sept. 19 in Chicago. He was 63.

Fr. Switanowski was born in 1950 in Detroit to Henry and Josephine Switanowski. He entered the Franciscans as a religious brother in 1969, and was ordained a priest later in life, in 1990. As a priest, he served in various parish assignments in the dioceses of Detroit, Peoria, Rockford and at Marytown in Libertyville, Ill., and as a confessor at the Vatican. He also served at the Basilica of St. Josaphat in Milwaukee and as director of formation for Franciscan students at St. Francis de Sales Seminary in St. Francis.

Fr. Switanowski, the brother of Victoria Rewiako-Smiley and dear friend of Sr. Mary Anthony Kubat, CSSF, is also survived by nieces, nephews and his Franciscan community.

A funeral Mass was Sept. 25 at the Basilica of St. Josaphat in Milwaukee. Burial is in St. Adalbert Cemetery, Milwaukee.