Br. Jasper Cyril

James Cletus McDonald was born the son of James and Kathryn Dugan McDonald on December 1, 1925 in Oak Park, Illinois. He completed his Novitiate in Glencoe, Missouri and his undergraduate degree at St. Mary’ College in Winona, Minnesota. His first teaching assignment brought him close to home at St. George High School in Evanston, Illinois, but for only a year before, in 1949 he was assigned to De La Salle High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From 1950 to 1952 he taught at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis, Missouri and in 1952 he moved to Christian Brothers High School in St. Joseph, Missouri. He returned to CBCHS in St. Louis in 1954 for three years before being assigned to teach at Christian Brothers College, Manila, Philippines. “Jimmy Mac” as he was called, taught in Manila for fourteen years before returning to the United States and St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois. After three years there he was assigned in 1974 to De La Salle Institute in Chicago, Illinois for the next fifteen years. He retired in 1989 and moved into the De La Salle Community in Chicago where he remained until 2004. From 2004 to 2014 Jimmy lived in Benilde Community in Chicago and he moved to Bronzeville Park Nursing Center in Chicago where he died at age 89 on October 4, 2015. He had been a De La Salle Christian Brother for seventy-one years.