Br. Idonius Alfred

Gerald James Marshall was born on May 10, 1926, the son of John and Mary Gindt Marshall in Iowa City, Iowa. After attending Catholic elementary and secondary schools in Waterloo, Iowa, he joined the United States Navy. During the final two years of World War II, he served, appropriately, in the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. After the war he attended the University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls) before entering the postulancy program and received the habit of the De La Salle Christian Brothers on the traditional Founder’s Day, May 15, 1947, in Glencoe, Missouri where he also made his Novitiate. Following his Novitiate, he began his undergraduate college studies at St. Mary’s College in Winona, Minnesota receiving his B.S.S. in 1950 and later his M.A. degree. His first teaching assignment took him to St. George High School in Evanston, Illinois where after having served for three years he was assigned to De La Salle High School in Kansas City, Missouri. After teaching for seven years in Kansas City “Sunshine Al,” as he was affectionately called, had, and would serve as Director and Principal at D La Salle in Kansas City, Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, St. Mel High School in Chicago, St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois and St. Martin High School, and St. Vincent Island, in the West Indies. Al was assigned to teach at Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After teaching there for three years he went to Chicago to take up his assignment to teach at St. Mel High School. After six years at St. Mel, he was assigned for two years at the Provincialate in Oak Park, Illinois. In 1972 Brother Alfred requested and received a teaching assignment at St. Martin School on St. Vincent Island in the West Indies. Brother Alfred taught there from 1979 to 1993 and was then assigned to La Salle House in Chicago for two years. His position as Social Justice Coordinator for the Chicago District (1993-1995) lead him to volunteer for missionary work in Nigeria from 1995 to 2006. His interest in international teaching then took him to De La Salle Center, Ondo State, Nigeria, and he taught there for four years before moving Jauro Yini, Jalingo, Taraha State, Nigeria. In 2002 he moved back to De La Salle Center, Ondo State, Nigeria, where he remained for two years before returning to the United States and the Midwest living in the Divine Providence Community in Westchester, Illinois. In 2006 he moved into the San Miguel Community and lived in retirement from 2006 to 2014 and then to Benilde – De La Salle Community in Chicago, Illinois in 2015. A year later he moved to St. Paul’s House where he lived his death on September 28, 2020, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for seventy-three years. Throughout his life and to those who had the privilege to know him, Brother Alfred was an example of dedication, peace, service to the poor, justice for the oppressed, zeal for the Institute, and faith in and love for his Brothers.