Br. James Daniel

Hilary Frederick Keller was born on July 25, 1924, in Chicago, the son of Frederick C. and Hazel O'Shea Keller.  He attended St. Patrick High School from 1938 to 1940 and St. Mel High School from 1940 to 1942.  After high school Hilary entered the US Naval Reserve where he remained for four years.  While in the naval reserve he continued his education by taking courses at Loyola University in Chicago and John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, completing his Ph.B in 1947.  He took a job teaching at St. George High School in Evanston, Illinois and after seven more years of association with the Christian Brothers he sought admission to the Novitiate and entered on March 3, 1953, at age twenty-nine.  He received the habit of the Brothers on May 14th of that same year and was given the religious name of Brother James Daniel.  He served on the Juniorate staff from 1954 until 1959 when he was transferred to Christian Brothers High School in Quincy, Illinois.  In both of these assignments he taught English, French, Religion and worked in the library as library science was his minor in college.  His extracurricular activities always included drama and music and usually the Parents' Club.  In 1962 he was made the Director and Principal of Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis, Missouri.  In 1966 he was named Director of the Christian Brothers House of Study (graduate studies) in St. Louis where he remained for two years before being named Director and Principal of La Salle High School in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Upon the tragic airplane death of Brother Lambert Thomas Matthews, Brother James Daniel was elected Visitor of the St. Louis District in 1969.  Brother Visitor Daniel died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage in July of 1971 at age forty-seven, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for seventeen years.     

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