Br. Hubert Lewis

James W. Connelly was born on May 31, 1875, the son of James and Catherine Donnelly Connelly, in Bucklin, Missouri. He entered the Novitiate on August 28, 1889, where he received the religious name of Brother Hubert Lewis and the robe of the Brothers. His first teaching assignment took him to St. Louis where he was to teach at St. Lawrence and St. Vincent's Schools. His tour of duty also took him to: Feehanville Orphanage at Feehanville, Illinois; St. Patrick's High School and De La Salle High School in Chicago, Illinois; Christian Brothers College in Memphis, Tennessee; Christian Brothers High School in St. Joseph, Missouri; Las Vegas and Bernalillo in New Mexico; De La Salle High School in Kansas City, Missouri; De La Salle High School in Minneapolis and Cretin High School in St. Paul, Minnesota; and St. George High School in Evanston, Indiana. Through self and advanced study be became a genius in science and mathematics, including chemistry, physics, astronomy, engineering, botany, bacteriology, electricity and radio. In 1912, along with two other Brothers, he established a wireless station, call letters 9YC, the first in Missouri to be recognized by the US government, and he was one of the first to notice a relationship between sunspots and weather and radio communications. He introduced an industrial arts program at CBC in St. Louis, and was an outspoken advocate of Catholic Boy Scout activities. In his later years he organized and cared for the Museum at Glencoe. He died at age eighty-one, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for sixty-seven years.