Br. Hermeus William

Richard Nicholas Rhody was born the son of Stephen S. and Adeline Kerst Rhody. He had three sisters: Marie, Mary Jane and Patricia, and three brothers: Lawrence, Frederick and William. Richard entered the novitiate after graduation from Cretin High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received the habit and the religious name of Brother Hermeus William on April 21, 1946. Brother William completed his B.A. degree at St. Mary's College in Winona, Minnesota, in 1950 and was assigned to teach at St. Mel High School in Chicago, Illinois. In 1953 he was transferred to Christian Brothers College in Memphis, Tennessee, where he taught in both the high school and junior college departments. Six years later, in 1959, he was assigned to St. Mary's College in Winona, Minnesota, but remained there only one year and in 1960 was assigned to a new school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Bishop Kelley High School. Willie remained in Tulsa three years and in the fall of 1963 made the one-hundred days retreat at Sangre De Cristo, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In the spring semester of that year he worked in Chicago to help raise money for a new scholasticate building. In the summer of 1964 he was again assigned to a new school, this time to Rummel High School in Omaha, Nebraska. After two years there he was transferred to Price College in Amarillo, Texas, as principal. Later that same year the school closed and Willie was sent to Helias High School in Jefferson City, Missouri, as principal and director. In 1971 he requested and received permission for advanced study. He attended the University of Missouri at Columbia from 1971 to 1973 when he received his Ph.D., being the first Brother, Priest or Sister to do so at the U of M. Upon completing his graduate work he was appointed Auxiliary Visitor for the St. Louis District where he served for six years. In 1979 he accepted the position of Director of Education for the Minnesota Catholic Conference in St. Paul and in 1989 he accepted the same position for the United States Catholic Conference in Washington, D.C. He remained at the U.S. Catholic Conference for only one year and in 1990-91 he worked in the public relations office of St. Mary's College Graduate Program in St. Paul. In 1992 he moved back to Washington to work for Christian Brothers Conference as Associate Director of the Lasallian Volunteer Program. Willie retired in 1997 to St. Paul and founded the Lasallian Reading Corps which recruited retired seniors and high school students to help elementary students with reading. He entered the care of the Little Sisters at Holy Family Residence in November of 2003 and died on January 1, 2004, of lung cancer. He donated his body for research to the Mayo Clinic and later when his cremated remains were returned they were interred at Resurrection Cemetery in St. Paul. He died at age seventy-six, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for fifty-eight years.