Br. Cornelius Luke

The New York Times announced his death on January 24, 1990, with the headline "Brother Luke, Teacher and Missionary, [dies at] 95".  Brother Cornelius Luke; an educator, missionary and former overseer of educational training centers for the Brothers of the Christian Schools, died of complications of diabetes on Monday at De La Salle Hall in Lincroft, N.J.  He was 95 years old and had retired to De La Salle in 1983.  Brother Luke studied and taught in Belgium before earning his master's degree from New York University in 1927 and a Ph.D. in English from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  He taught at several high schools [in Providence, Rhode Island, St. Joseph's in Manchester, New Hampshire, Cathedral High School in New York] and at Manhattan College.  [The new scholasticate in Washington DC was opened under his supervision as Director in September of 1930].  In 1938 he was named Visitor General of the order and for twenty-four years  was in charge of educational training centers in the United States, England, Ireland and Australia.  He was named director of an educational center at Santa Fe, N.M., and later was a missionary in Malaya, Sir Lanka and Manila." He died on January 22, 1990, at age ninety-five and in his eightieth year as a De La Salle Christian Brother and as "Dean", the eldest Brother, of the USA-Toronto Region.