Br. Herman Basil

Joseph  Francis Wunderlich was born on January 18, 1899, one of seven children and  the son of Joseph Francis and Angeline Busch Wunderlich, in Winona,  Minnesota.  Joseph attended Cotter High  School in Winona and upon graduation in 1916 he entered the Novitiate in  Glencoe where, in March 1919, he received the habit and received the  religious name of Brother Herman Basil.   He completed his Novitiate and Scholasticate year and was assigned to  De La Salle Institute in Chicago, Illinois, where he continued his studies at  DePaul University, taught classes and founded the school band.  He received his Ph.B. from DePaul in 1925  and his B.A. Degree from Loyola University in 1926.  One year later, 1927, he received his B.S.  in Music from the Connecticut National School of Music.  Brother Basil was appointed Director of De  La Salle High School in Joliet, Illinois, in 1930 and Director of De La Salle  Institute in Chicago, Illinois, three years later in 1933.  In 1940 he was transferred to Boys Town,  Nebraska, as Director and that same year earned his M.A. degree from Loyola  University.  Four years later, in 1944,  he was appointed Director of St. Patrick Academy in Chicago and in 1947 he  was made Director of St. Mel High School in the same city.  He was appointed Director of Novices in  1952 and La Salle High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1953.  One year later he was assigned to De La  Salle Institute in Chicago where he founded the Christian Brothers Boys  Association.  Brother Basil remained at  De la Salle for seven years before being assigned to St. Francis High School  in Wheaton, Illinois, where he taught until 1963 before returning to De La  Salle in Chicago where he died in 1970 of a heart attack at age seventy-one,  having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for forty-nine years.