Br. Isidore Conrad

Leo Gilskey was born the son of Isidore and Marybell Kerrigan Gilskey in Hilger, Montana on October 20, 1916. He entered the Novitiate at Glencoe in 1934 and completed his Scholasticate at St. Mary’s College in Winona, Minnesota, in 1938, graduating Summa Cum Laude. He began his teaching career at Price College High School in Amarillo, Texas, in 1938 but three years later was assigned to Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1941 as teacher and Assistant Principal. He served in those same functions from 1946 to 1949 at St. Patrick High School in Chicago, Illinois, and then was transferred to St. Mel High School in 1949. A year later he returned to CBHS in St. Louis as Principal. In 1956 he was assigned as Assistant Principal at Benilde High School in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, staying only a semester before being named Dean at St. Mary’s College in Winona. He made the Second Novitiate in 1958-59 in Rome and returned to the states to be assigned as principal for a year at De La Salle Institute in Chicago (1959) and a year later at St. Mel High School in Chicago (1960). He was named Superintendent at Bishop Noll High School in Hammond, Indiana, in 1961 and remained there seven years before being appointed Auxiliary Visitor of the Chicago District. Five years later he was named Superintendent of Education of the Diocese of Saginaw, Michigan. In 1975 he was named Academic Vice-President at Lewis University but served only one year before being named Academic Dean at St. John Seminary, Plymouth, Michigan. In 1978 he served as Administrative Assistant in the Provincialate in Romeoville, Illinois, and in 1982 was named Director of Planned Giving at Christian Brothers College in Memphis, Tennessee. From 1985 to 1988 he worked in Development for the Chicago District but continued to live in the C.B. Community in Romeoville from 1988 to 2001 while retired. In 2001 he moved to the Benilde Community in Chicago and for health reasons moved to Resurrection Life Center in Chicago in 2004 where he died at age 91, in his 73rd year as a De La Salle Christian Brother.