Br. Hilarion Edward

Leo William Lucas was born on November 17, 1913, in Rushford, Minnesota, one of eight children of Joseph John and Anna Barbara Byrne Lucas. He met the Brothers when he attended Cotter High School in Winona and it was from there that he entered the Juniorate on March 24, 1928. He passed to the Novitiate in August of 1931 where he received the habit and religious name of Brother Hilarion Edward. He spent his first year of Scholasticate in Glencoe and then became one of the pioneering class who went to St. Mary's in Winona, where he completed his B.S. in 1935. His first teaching assignment took him to St. Patrick's in Chicago, Illinois, for two years before he was assigned to St. Mel High School in 1937. While there he earned his M.A. from DePaul University and from 1939 to 1949 he was assigned to De La Salle High School in Minneapo­lis, Minnesota. In 1949, Brother Edward began his thirty-four year tenure at De La Salle Institute in Chicago where he taught his favorite history and religion. He received the nickname, "Fra", which remained with him until his death from a series of strokes at age of seventy, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for fifty-five years.