Early in his training, he was involved in some incident of mischief, and was expelled from the Redemptorist school he was attending, prompting him to immediately pursue admittance to the Society of Jesus, despite having no prior familiarity with the order.

He spent the remainder of his life at Keyser Island, as superior of the Jesuit novitiate of St. Andrew-on-Hudson in Poughkeepsie, New York, and as a recluse at Georgetown, due to his illness.

[3] His father was also a German immigrant, who became an engineer for the Maryland State House, where he would remain for twenty years,[2] and moved his family to Annapolis, purchasing the historic Brice B.

For one year in 1869, he enrolled at St. John's College in Annapolis on a Mason Scholarship, before transferring to Saint James School in Hagerstown, where he remained from 1870 to 1871.

[6] Himmel was ordained a subdeacon, deacon, and priest at Woodstock on August 27, 1885, by Archbishop James Gibbons, who was assisted by Robert Fulton, the provincial superior of the Society of Jesus.

Once deemed strong enough, he was sent for three years as a member of the missionary band to New England, where his mission was stationed out of St. Mary's Church in Boston.

[6] During his leadership of the island, the center became a popular place of retreat among the Jesuits and the Catholic clergy of Hartford, and Himmel oversaw construction of a chapel and several large houses.

[1] On April 26, 1907, Himmel was named the twentieth president and rector of Gonzaga College in Washington, D.C., succeeding Edward X.

[15] During the first summer of his term, he oversaw the refurbishment of the school building, which was falling into disrepair, and involved remodeling its interior.

They were joined by Monsignor Denis J. O'Connell, the rector of the Catholic University of America; William Morgan Shuster, a member of the Philippine Commission, Major Frank McIntyre of the U.S. Army; and Congressmen William Bourke Cockran, Michael E. Driscoll, and Joseph A. Goulden, as honored guests.

[19] He was replaced by Eugene DeL McDonnell, who became vice (acting) rector, until Charles W. Lyons was named the permanent successor.

[19] Due to the widespread unpopularity of David Hillhouse Buel among the students and faculty, the Jesuit Superior General sought to find a replacement as president of Georgetown University.

During the game, one of the Cavaliers, Archer Christian, was severely injured on the field, and fell into a coma on the sidelines, only to die of a brain hemorrhage at the Georgetown University Hospital the next day.

[22] While his administration of the university was successful, his worsening arterial sclerosis soon prevented him from fulfilling the office, and he wrote to the superior general in summer 1910 that the institution would be better served by a younger president.

[25] During this time, the Jesuits sought to relocate their novitiate from Yonkers, New York, to their newly created New England vice-province.

Given his debilitated state, he was placed in charge of the Georgetown University archives, where he led a largely reclusive life.