Br. Henry Virgil

William James Pelant was born on July 12, 1924 in Minneapolis. His mother died when he was six years old and he was raised by his maternal grandmother. William attended high school at De La Salle on Nicolet Island and during his second year there he entered the Juniorate in Glencoe on February 16, 1939, at the age of fifteen. On June 17, 1941, he entered the Novitiate at Glencoe, and received the habit and religious name of Brother Henry Virgil on August 30th. He completed his B.S. degree in 1945 from St. Mary's College in Winona, majoring in mathematics, chemistry and physics. Following graduation he was assigned to teach at St. George High School in Evanston, Illinois, where he remained until 1949 when he transferred to De La Salle High School in Chicago. In 1950 he was assigned to teach at Christian Brothers College in St. Louis, Missouri, and in 1952 he moved to Cretin High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. Brother Henry Virgil's long standing request for missionary work was answered in 1953 when he was assigned to De La Salle College in Manila. In 1958 he was assigned to La Salle College in Bacolod City, Philippines, but a year later he was appointed Dean of the College of Engineering in Manila. He was appointed principal and founding Director of La Salle High School in Lipa City in 1961 but died of a heart attack there in 1963 at age thirty-nine, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for twenty-two years.