Br. Henry Edmund

Fitzjohn Gerald Smith was born the second child and first boy of Edward F. and Bridget Fitzgerald Smith on April 15, 1886, in St. Louis, Missouri. "John", as he was called, was one of six children, three boys and three girls. Two sisters became nuns and one brother, Louis Peter, became a Christian Brother, Brother James of Mary, on February 2, 1908. After completing his elementary education at St. Malachy's, he entered the Juniorate on April 16, 1899, and the Novitiate on September 8, 1902, where he received the religious name of Brother Henry Edmund. From 1907 to 1919 he taught in the St. Louis area at St. Vincent's, St. Malachy's and St. Alphonsus Schools, and at St. Mel in 1919 and De La Salle and St. Joe, Missouri, in 1921. He returned to Minneapolis in 1921 and St. Alphonsus in 1923. He worked in the Juniorate from 1926 to 1936, nine years as Director, before being appointed Inspector of Schools for the District. He was the first Director appointed to Boys Town in 1939. From 1943 until his retirement (1972) he served at St. Joseph, Missouri; St. Patrick's, Chicago, Price High School, Amarillo, Texas; Stevens Point, Wisconsin; the Juniorate in St. Paul; La Salle Manor at Plano and finally CBHS in St. Louis. He died at the age of ninety, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for seventy-seven years. He was laid to rest next to his brother in the cemetery at Glencoe.