Br. Jerome Benjamin

William Fidelis Gaffney was born on April 30, 1900, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Irish parents, Michael and Margaret Maloney Gaffney. He was first introduced to the Brothers when he enrolled in 1913 at De La Salle High School and in April of 1916 he entered the Juniorate program at Glencoe. Bill Gaffney received the habit of the Brothers on February 1, 1917, and the religious name of Brother Jerome Benjamin and one year later he professed his first vows. His first teaching assignment was to Christian Brothers College in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1918 where he taught religion and math. The following year he was assigned to Cotter High School in Winona, Minnesota, and remained there until 1923 when he was transferred to De La Salle Academy in Kansas City where he taught classes and acted as Vocation Director and took summer session classes at the University of Missouri in Columbia. In 1925 he made his perpetual vows and in 1926 he was assigned to De La Salle High School in Chicago where he became active outside of the classroom in coaching and music. In 1927 he graduated from De Paul University and was assigned to teach and serve as Athletic Director at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1929 he returned to De La Salle Institute in Chicago and in 1930 he was assigned to St Mel High School in Chicago as Assistant Principal and Sub-Director. He remained there for twenty years celebrating his Silver Jubilee there in 1942. In 1950 he served at Christian Brothers College in Memphis, in 1956 at St. George High School in Evanston where he celebrated his Golden Jubilee and at St. Patrick's High School in Chicago in 1969-1984, where he celebrated his Diamond Jubilee. He died of a heart attack in July of 1984 at age eighty-four, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for sixty-eight years.