The Rev. Chester J. Osowski, 92, a Catholic priest for 66 years, a town of Sharon native and a former pastor of churches in Stevens Point, Hull and Torun, died Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, at his home in Wisconsin Rapids.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5, at St. Peter Catholic Church in Stevens Point, with the Most Rev. William Patrick Callahan, Bishop of La Crosse, as the main celebrant and the Rev. Derek J. Sakowski as the homilist. Burial will be at St. Adalbert Cemetery in Rosholt.

Visitation will be in the St. Faustina Room of the church from 8:30 a.m. Tuesday until the Mass.

Pisarski Funeral Home in Stevens Point assisted the Diocese
of La Crosse and the family with arrangements. Condolences may be offered
online at www.pisarskifuneralhome.com.

The Rev. Osowski was born March 11, 1923, in the town of
Sharon in Portage County, the 11th of 14 children of the late Florian and
Matilda (Bushman) Osowski. He attended Bruski Elementary School.

He pursued studies for the priesthood by enrolling at St.
Bonaventure Minor Seminary in Sturtevant and graduated in 1940.

In the fall of 1940 he joined the Franciscan Order and spent
a year in the novitiate at Pulaski. He then studied philosophy at St. Francis
College in Burlington and graduated magna cum laude in 1945, followed by four
years of studying theology in Cedar Lake, Ind., and Green Bay.

He was ordained a priest at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in
Green Bay by Bishop Stanislaus V. Bona for the Order of Friars Minor,
Assumption Province (known as the Pulaski Franciscans).

His first assignment was as an assistant at St. Mary of the
Angels Parish in Green Bay. He was named pastor of St. Sebastian Church in Sturtevant,
as well as professor of Latin, Polish and ancient history at St. Bonaventure
Minor Seminary in Sturdevant June 20, 1951.

He was named pastor June 20, 1954, of the newly established
St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Saginaw, Mich., where he worked to help build a
school, convent and gymnasium that served as a temporary church. In 1963 he
returned to St. Mary of the Angels Parish in Green Bay as the pastor. On May
23, 1967 he took up the work of the Home Mission Band with primary residence in
Lake Geneva. As a Home Missionary he conducted many parish missions, retreats and
40-hour devotions.

The Rev. Osowski exclaustrated from the Pulaski Franciscans
Sept. 2, 1969, with the intention of becoming a priest of the Diocese of La
Crosse. It was at this time that he became an assistant at St. Joseph Parish in
Black River Falls, while also serving as the administrator of St. Kevin Parish
in Melrose and St. Malachy Parish in Roaring Creek.

He was fully incardinated into the Diocese of La Crosse Sept.
15, 1972, and was assigned associate at Immaculate Conception Parish in Eau
Claire. On June 26, 1974, he was assigned pastor of St. Anthony Parish in
Loyal.

He became the pastor of St. Florian Parish in Hatley on July
1, 1980, for exactly two years until he became the pastor of St. Peter in
Stevens Point.

On Jan. 14, 1987, he became the pastor of St. Casmir Parish
in the town of Hull and St. Mary Parish in Torun. On May 26, 1987, he returned
to St. Anthony Parish in Loyal as pastor and remained there until March 6, 1990,
when he became pastor of St. James Parish in Vesper and St. Francis Parish in
Arpin.

On July 1, 1996, in addition to his other pastoral
responsibilities, he was also assigned the pastor of Holy Rosary Parish in the town
of Sigel in Marathon County until obtaining status of a senior priest on June
8, 2000.

As a senior priest, the Rev. Osowski took up residence at
St. Philip Rectory in Rudolph and helped out at numerous parishes. Since
January 2015, he resided at Arborwood Lodge Assisted Living in Wisconsin
Rapids.

Survivors include one brother, Edward; and many nieces and
nephews, great- and great-great-nieces and nephews and cousins.

He was also preceded in death six sisters, Regina, Frances,
Joanna, Teckla, Esther and Theresa; and six brothers, Roman, Nick, Leo, Henry,
Francis and Stanley.