Br. Herbert Lewis

Michael  John Twohig was born on May 17, 1916, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of  Michael and Susan Doherty Twohig.   Michael attended De La Salle Institute in Chicago where he first met  the Brothers.  In 1931 he entered the  Juniorate at Glencoe, Missouri, and upon graduation, entered the Novitiate  there in 1934.  He received the habit  on August 30, 1934, and the religious name of Brother Herbert Lewis.  His first year of Scholasticate was spent  in Glencoe and the remainder at St. Mary's College in Winona, Minnesota,  where he received his B.A. in 1938.   Brother Herbert Lewis' first teaching assignment took him to De La  Salle High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he remained from 1938 to  1941.  From 1941 to 1946 he taught at  Christian Brothers High School in St. Louis, Missouri and at St. Peter High  School in Jefferson City, Missouri from 1946 to 1953.  St. Louis University awarded him a M.Ed. in  1951 and he was appointed Assistant Principal at Cretin High School in St.  Paul, Minnesota in 1953 but was transferred to St. Patrick High School in  Chicago, Illinois.  His tour of duty  continued, taking him to Helias High School in Jefferson City from 1955-1958;  De La Salle Institute in Chicago from 1958 to 1960 as Assistant Principal;  Hill and Hill-Murray High School in St. Paul for seven years, 1960-1973 as  Assistant Principal and then Principal; Cretin High School again as Assistant  Principal from 1973 to 1982.  Brother  Lewis was assigned as Director of Development at the St. Paul Provincialate  in 1982 and retired to the Cretin-Hamline Community in 1991.  Over the years he developed an incredible  love for Ireland and visited it numerous times.  He began writing Irish poems in 1980 and  published three books of them which sold over ten-thousand copies.  Brother Lewis died of pancreatic cancer on  December 23, 1996, at age eighty, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother  for sixty-five years.