Br. Justinian Lewis

Vincent  Heffernan was born on February 24, 1922, in Kansas City, Missouri.  In his early teens he was orphaned by the  untimely death of both of his parents, and his foster-mother, Katryn Carry,  took him into her home.  She sent young  Vincent to De La Salle High School in Kansas City, where he first met and  decided in April of 1937 to join the Christian Brothers.  He graduated from the Juniorate in 1939 and  entered the Novitiate where he received the habit and religious name of  Brother Justinian Lewis.  He completed  his Scholasticate at St. Mary's College in Winona, Minnesota, in 1943 and was  assigned to teach at St. Patrick's Academy in Chicago, Illinois.  He specialized in mathematics and physical  science and received his M.S. from DePaul University in 1946.  He was assigned to teach at Cotter High  School in Winona, Minnesota, in 1948 and at Central Catholic High School in  Vincennes, Indiana, in 1952.  Brother  Lewis was transferred to Holy Name High School in Escanaba, Michigan, in 1958  where he was named Sub-Director in 1963 and where he died of a malignancy in  1965.  He was forty-three years of age  at the time of his death in the hospital in La Crosse, having been a De La  Salle Christian Brother for twenty-eight years.