Bishop Robert J. Banks, a Winthrop native and the 10th bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin, died on Jan. 25 at the St. Paul Elder Services Center, Kaukauna, Wisconsin. He had been in assisted living, nursing care, and memory care for the past several years. He would have celebrated his 98th birthday on Feb. 26, 2026.

The only child of the late Robert and Rita (Sullivan) Banks, he was born in Winthrop on Feb. 26, 1928. He attended Winthrop schools before entering Cathedral High School in Boston's South End. Graduating from Cathedral High in 1945, he entered St. John Seminary the following fall for his college and philosophy seminary studies.

An outstanding student, he was sent to the recently reopened Pontifical North American College at Rome along with another Bostonian, Archbishop Daniel A. Cronin, archbishop emeritus of Hartford. With the death of Bishop Banks, Archbishop Cronin is the sole surviving member of the Class of 1953 and the oldest alumnus of Pontifical North American College.

The seminary had been reopened following World War II and amidst an unstable situation in Italy in the early post-war years. The newly arrived Americans returned to the refurbished college, the Casa Santa Maria, now the graduate house, where they lived while taking their courses at nearby Roman universities, mostly at the Pontifical Gregorian University. The "Greg" was located just a few blocks from the Casa.

Cardinal Clemente Micara, the vicar general of Rome, ordained him and his classmates to the priesthood at the Papal Basilica of St. John Lateran, the papal cathedral, on Dec. 20, 1952. In those years, the candidates were ordained to the priesthood several months prior to the completion of their studies. Though they were members of the Class of 1953, they were ordained in 1952. At the time of his ordination, he was just shy of his 25th birthday.

His first assignment on return to Boston was as an assistant at St. Mary Parish, Dedham. That assignment lasted only a year before he returned to Rome to complete graduate studies in theology, earning a licentiate in theology (STL) from the Pontifical Gregorian University and a doctorate in canon law (JCD) at the Lateran University.

When he returned to Boston again, he was for two years (1957-1959) an assistant at Immaculate Conception Parish in Winchester.v

In 1959, he was assigned to the faculty of St. John Seminary, where he served in a variety of posts until 1981. Initially a professor of canon law, he was also eventually the academic dean, and from 1971 to 1981, rector of the seminary.

Before being named rector, he was an admired faculty advisor for seminarians and, more so, the choice as spiritual director for many.

His task as professor of canon law, not ever an easy class to teach, was complicated even more by the flux in which canon law was operating following the Second Vatican Council and during the nearly quarter-century of its reform.

"Noted for his 'on the one hand but on the other' answers, he frustrated many of us who would have preferred plain and simple, black and white. The problem was that the flux created huge spaces of gray and yet-to-be-resolved issues. Something we learned after a few years ourselves," said his former student, Merrimack Regional Bishop Robert F. Hennessey.

The bishop was quick to point out that "Father Banks, as rector, was eminently fair. He showed no favorites. Another thing I recall about him was that he always used the stairs going up and down and back and forth between the two buildings of theology house (St. John and Bishop Peterson). An unwritten and not much enforced rule was that elevators were primarily for faculty. More than a few of us met him as he was coming up two or three flights of stairs, taking them two at a time, while we were cruising the elevator whose doors opened and the rector greeting us with a wry smile. He said nothing; didn't have to.

"He was a very good teacher. While we were all expected at all classes, he was notorious for asking a few questions here and there and 'accidentally' calling on someone who he knew was absent. The word got out. Quickly."

He was extremely competitive. Those who accepted the challenge to meet for handball, racquetball, or golf soon realized this was for him "serious business." He later added wind surfing to his list of athletic endeavors.

In an unusual move, he asked to return to parish life, and went to St. Mark in Dorchester in 1981 and served as an associate there until being named pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in Roslindale in 1983.

By all accounts, he was at his very best in parish life. People looked for him, and the priests with whom he lived and served were treated as coworkers. He would always have their backs.

While at Roslindale, the new Archbishop Bernard F. Law tasked Father Banks with helping him create a new style of archdiocesan administration. This resulted in the now well-known "cabinet style" of archdiocesan governance. So effective was he in studying and reporting it that he ended up being tasked with implementing it.

Archbishop Law named him vicar general and vicar for administration of the archdiocese on Sept. 18, 1984. A year and a day later, on Sept. 19, 1984, he was ordained a bishop at Holy Cross Cathedral by Cardinal Law. The two principal co-ordaining bishops were Fall River's Bishop Daniel A. Cronin and Burlington's Bishop John A. Marshall.

He served as auxiliary of the archdiocese, implementing the cabinet plan which involved bringing together agencies and offices that were often unaware of each other, but who had the common purpose of serving clergy and people, parishes, schools, etc.

On Oct. 16, 1990, Pope St. John Paul II named Bishop Banks to be the 10th bishop of Green Bay. He was installed in the Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier on Dec. 5, 1990.

During the following 13 years, he served in the Wisconsin Diocese. According to Green Bay accounts, he was energetic and attentive to his pastoral duties, managing problems with a deft hand and being very present in the diocese and with special attention to his clergy.

This was not at all surprising considering his advice, repeated often in canon law class, "Gentlemen, remember you have a lot more in common with your people -- baptism and confirmation -- than what makes you different -- ordination."

Pope St. John Paul II accepted his resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese on Oct. 10, 2003. He remained in Green Bay assisting his two successors, both in parishes and in celebrating confirmations around the diocese.

Bishop Banks's funeral Mass was celebrated on Feb.6, 2026, at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Green Bay. The principal celebrant was the 12th bishop of Green Bay, Bishop David L. Ricken, and the homilist was former auxiliary bishop of Green Bay, Bishop Robert F. Morneau.

Following the funeral Mass, Bishop Banks was buried in Allouez Catholic Cemetery, Allouez, Wisconsin.