Troyer, Charles

Charles Troyer was born on October 28, 1911 at Nove, in the province of Vicenza, Italy. When he was twenty-two, he entered the IMC (Consolata Missionaries) and in 1935 made his vows as a brother. After four years of service in Italy, he left for Kenya, just before the beginning of World War II. During the conflict he was taken as a prisoner of war to South Africa, from whence he returned to Kenya in 1944. From then on he worked until 1956 in various parts of Kikuyuland as a teacher and a principal in one or another of the technical schools built by the Consolata Missionaries. In 1957 he was sent by Bishop Cavallera to Maralal, where he founded the Rural Centre, a technical school for the Samburu and Turkana. He remained there until 1984, working tirelessly in the school and constructing various buildings for the growing mission of Maralal. Early in the 1970s he was sent by Cavallera to run the Catholic Technical School at Marsabit where he remained for some years. In 1984 he had to return to Italy because of ill health and he died in Turin in 1985.

This article, received in 2005, was reprinted with permission from* Christianity among the Nomads: The Catholic Church in Northern Kenya*, by Paul Tablino, © copyright 2004 by St. Paul Communications / Daughters of St. Paul, Nairobi, Kenya.