Br. James Luke

John  James Aloysius Hurley began life on December 19, 1909, the son of John Roche  and Joanna O'Sullivan Hurley, in Chicago, Illinois.  Although he had been offered a scholarship  to another high school, John chose to attend St. Patrick's Academy which was  conducted by the Christian Brothers.   In February of 1931 he entered the Novitiate at La Salle Institute and  on April 21, 1931, he received the habit and religious name of Brother James  Luke.  Upon completion of his Novitiate  year, he took his first year of Scholasticate training at Glencoe and then  completed his work at DePaul in Chicago and St. Mary's College in Winona,  Minnesota, in 1935 with his B.A. degree, cum laude.  His first teaching assignment took him to  St. Mel's High School in Chicago in 1935, the same year the school became a  military school.  Over the next seven  years he was to become teacher, Director, library assistant, drama director  and moderator of the National Honor Society.   He also earned his M.A. Degree from DePaul (1939) and another M.A.  from Loyola (1942), as well as taking time to attend the Columbia College of  Dramatics.  In 1942 he was named  Principal of St. Mel's but in 1947 illness forced a change.  Brother James Luke was assigned to St.  Mary's College in Winona where he immediately pursued his love of drama.  During the next five years he was Director  of Dramatics, Chairman of the Department of Humanities, attended Fordham  University, St. Louis University and Catholic University.  In 1955 he was assigned to De La Salle in  Chicago, where he eventually became Principal.  In his retirement years he helped organize  and operate a Development Office for the Chicago District in Chicago's  Loop.  Before catching his bus in front  of Lewis University to go to work on December 31st he was hit by a truck on  the Highway in front of Lewis and died from the injuries he received.  He died at age seventy-three, having been a  De La Salle Christian Brother for fifty-one years.