Br. Ignatius Basil

Gilbert Theodore Rothweiler was born the son of Charles and Louise Mary (Pier) Rothweiler on March 26, 1917 in Racine, Wisconsin. He entered the Brothers in 1934 and four years later received his B.S.S. from St. Mary’s College in Winona. His first teaching assignment was at Price College in Amarillo, Texas but he returned to his alma mater, St. Mary’s College in 1943 for three years before being assigned to Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis, Missouri for a year where he completed courses for a M.A. degree from St. Louis University. He returned to Price College in 1947 and in 1950 he was assigned as Principal at De La Salle Institute in Chicago, Illinois. Brother I. Basil was named president of St. Mary’s College in Winona in 1956 where he remained for seven years before being named Visitor of the Winona District in 1963. In 1969 he became principal of Cretin High School in St. Paul. In 1977 he was assigned as principal at De La Salle High School in Minneapolis. He spent a year at the University of Notre Dame (1984) and a year at Miguel House in St Paul (1985) before returning to St. Mary’s in Winona for two years. He moved to Cretin-Derham Hall Residence in 1988 and to Holy Family Residence in 2008 where he died on November 8, 2014 at age ninety-three, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for eighty years