Br. James Camillus

Edward C. Dufresne was born on June 23, 1917, the son of Paul J. and Emma C. Durand Dufresne in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was one of seven children. He entered the Novitiate and received the habit and the religious name of Brother James Camillus on August 30, 1935. Brother J. Camillus received his BA from St. Mary's College in Winona, Minnesota, in 1939 and his M. Ed. at Loyola in 1942. His first teaching assignment was at De La Salle Institute in Chicago, Illinois, from 1939 to 1944, when he was assigned to Mont St. Louis in Montreal, for two years. In 1946 he returned to De La Salle in Chicago for one year before being assigned for the next six years at St. George High School in Evanston, Illinois. Brother Camillus made the Second Novitiate in Rome, Italy, in 1953 and was assigned the following year as Principal at St Mel High School in Chicago for six years. From 1960 to 1966 he served as the founding Principal at La Salle High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then as Principal at De La Salle Academy in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1966 he was named Academic Vice President at Christian Brothers College in Memphis, Tennessee, and then in 1972 he was named Director of Finance for the St. Louis District. He returned to CBC in Memphis in 1974 as Executive Vice President but was elected Visitor of the District in 1976, a post he filled for six years. In 1981 he was given a sabbatical and for the next nineteen years he served in the missions, primarily in Nicaragua at the Casa De Maryknoll. He was passionate and devoted to this work and died at the Maryknoll Center there as was his desire. He was eighty-four years old at the time of his death. He had been a De La Salle Christian Brother for sixty-six years. In a special dedication ceremony on December 15, 2001, his ashes were placed in the grotto in Calvary Cemetery in Glencoe.