Br. Leo Loda

Leo  Robert Jones was born one of four boys to John M. and Irene (Ryan) Jones in  Waukon, Iowa, on May 16, 1940. At age 18 he entered the Novitiate on November  21, 1958, in Glencoe, Missouri. He completed his scholasticate at St. Mary’s  College in Winona in 1962 and later his M.Ed. from St. Mary’s. His first  teaching assignment took him to St. Joseph High School in Westchester,  Illinois in 1962 and he taught there for six years before moving to St. Paul  High School in Chicago, Illinois.  In  1973 Leo was assigned to Bishop Gallagher in Harper Woods, Minnesota where he  remained for two years when he entered retreat work at La Salle Manor for the  first of three times in Plano, Illinois.   In 1979 he returned to teaching at St. Joseph High School in  Westchester but in 1982 he returned to La Salle Manor in Plano. He spent  1984-1985 at St. Cassian Center in England but in 1985 once again returned to  retreat work at La Salle Manor. His attraction to the classroom drew him back  to St. Joseph High School for the third time in 1987 and remained there for  21 years until he was assigned to Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois in  2008. Leo held many leadership roles in various Lasallian high schools and  retreat centers, however, at least 30 years before his death, he started to  place his highest priority on relationships and not titles or roles and this  was noticed and deeply appreciated.  As  one insightful Lasallian administrator asserted, “Leo  loved the students, especially those who came from other countries – and they  loved him in return.  Leo did what  Brothers do so well: he accompanied young people as they pursued their  education, and he showed them that whey mattered and are loved.” Until his death on December 1, 2020, he taught and worked at  Lewis University. He died of Covid19 (a pandemic) at Amita Adventist Hospital  at Bolingbrook, Illinois, at age eighty and had been a De La Salle Christian  Brother for 62 years. At his request, his cremated remains were interred at  the family Cemetery in Iowa.