WHEN Br. Jerome Menkhaus, SJ, accepted the Xavier Award at the 1996 Jesuit Mission dinner in New York, he commented in an offhanded way, "I'm the one who probably spent more of the money that you contributed than any other Jesuit missionary."

He was talking about the upwards curve the construction budgets he has managed for New York Province projects have taken: from $5,000 in 1980, when he turned a dorm into a convent in Micronesia, all the way to $8.5 million for a high school in Nigeria last year.

The beginnings of his vocation date to 1961, when he entered the Society of Jesus from Fordham Prep and spent two and a half years at St. Andrew-on-Hudson as a brother candidate and novice. Fr. Jim Fischer, SJ, the rector of St. Andrew's, hired a carpenter for some renovation and repair projects. Br. Menkhaus worked with him, found he had an affinity for things mechanical, and started learning more about carpentry and electrical work. He then helped supervise work on a larger project, subdividing a huge room into smaller bedrooms in a wing at St. Andrew's.

Br. Menkhaus has managed construction projects in the South Pacific and in Africa. His expertise in construction is the result of equal doses of classroom education and on-the-job training.

Br. Menkhaus then studied arts and sciences at St. Peter's College in Jersey City for two years and followed that up with three years at the University of Detroit, earning a bachelor's and then a master's degree in civil engineering.

"The irony is that when I got my degree there was no more construction in the province. So I became a teacher," he remembers. After teaching math at St. Peter's for a while, he became director of institutional research, organizing data for use by the college.

His first Jesuit work abroad was on a small island in Micronesia, when the New York provincial sent him to teach at the province's Ponape Agricultural and Trade School (PATS). "I was supposed to teach construction technologies without having built anything," he says. He was thrown into the classroom and taught the very practical subjects of math, design, and project finance.

Martin Neylon, SJ, the bishop of Micronesia, called on Jerry's growing list of talents. "The bishop asked me to arrange for the renovation of a girls' dorm for sisters coming from Japan."

What they needed in a hurry was a place to live. "I hired carpenters and painters and did the electrical work myself on weekends."

The work was completed. Competence bred demand. "Bishop Neylon was pleased. He then asked me to build a new rectory in Majuro in the Marshall Islands on the old rectory's foundation," Br. Menkhaus remembers. Feeling that he did not have the experience necessary to tackle the project, he set about gaining it. "In the summer of 1981 I worked with DiGiacomo and Son Construction in New York and got on-the-job experience as an assistant to the supervisor on a job at the Immigrant Savings Bank."

He then returned to Micronesia to oversee the building of the rectory, but "within a couple of weeks the contractor declared bankruptcy, so I became the contractor of a two-story frame building. Those were my panic years. I had to learn how to do it while I was doing it. I did the electrical work and the plumbing and hired others for the carpentry, the masonry, and the painting."

His performance warranted an encore. "Bishop Neylon was so pleased he brought me back to Ponape for several other renovations. The bishop would order the materials from the States, and I would hire local labor while handling the electrical work and the plumbing myself." The panic years paid off; Br. Menkhaus developed skills as a general contractor as well as a builder.

Br. Menkhaus returned to Manhattan to teach math at Regis High, where he kept his construction skills in play by supervising students building sets for school plays. But he did not remain stateside for long.

In 1990 the provincial, Fr. Joe Novak, sent him to Nigeria to supervise more construction. The Church in Nigeria had been experiencing greater and greater Jesuit involvement as projects expanded and manpower needs increased. First there was an expansion of the novitiate. "I supervised the construction of a two-story masonry block building in Benin City. Next I built a retreat center in Benin City, a complex of two one-story and three two-story buildings. In 1994 we had the dedication."

"It was a quantum leap from everything I had done," says Br. Jerome Menkhaus, SJ, on whose shoulders rested oversight of a multimillion dollar construction project, Loyola High School in Abuja, Nigeria.

Working on a new Jesuit high school in Nigeria was next on the list of Br. Menkhaus's tasks. The site was in Abuja, the new planned capital.

"It was beautiful. More than 20 buildings were completed or in progress on 70 acres. But it was a quantum leap from everything I had done. There were a number of faculty houses to build as temporary quarters for Jesuits and land to be cleared and graded for other buildings." It was quite a jump from the $5,000 for the remodeling on Micronesia. This project had more than $8.5 million committed to it, $6.5 million for the buildings on the drawing table and another $2 million for more buildings in the future.

There is a certain irony in Br. Menkhaus's expanding expertise. He remembers his time in the novitiate, years ago: "I had no desire to go to college or to be a teacher or to work overseas." As well, his increased skills and knowledge have distanced him from hands-on involvement in his work: "I got further away from working with skilled laborers and doing what I enjoyed most. Now I'm working with architects, engineers, and contractors and managing finances and schedules. I had to hire others to 'walk the job' and check on the details of the construction."

But such irony is just a part of Br. Menkhaus's story, one of ongoing education-engineering degrees, experience on the job, and private study-and a series of challenges to grow, reach out, expand, and touch others' lives. Though Br. Menkhaus's contribution to technology among Jesuits has been hands-on, his work has a spiritual underpinning: "I see my work as helping to provide facilities that others use to spread the gospel message," he says.

The young man from Fordham Prep who entered the Society of Jesus has become a world traveler, having lived in three or four different cultures. The young man who just wanted to help out has become a mentor and a teacher. He has taken Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach's challenge and made that dream his own: to hope to train "everyone-rich, poor, and middle class-in the perspective of justice and in Christ's special love for the poor."

Fr. Matt Roche, SJ, a frequent contributor to Company, is associate pastor at St. Anthony's Parish in Oceanside, N.Y., and communications coordinator for the New York Province.