Br. Joel Adrian

Bertram Seiler was one of nine children of Mr. & Mrs. Peter Seiler. He was born on January 6, 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, where he attended De La Salle High School. He entered the Juniorate in January of 1931 and received the habit and entered the Novitiate in August of 1934. He received the religious name of Brother Joel Adrian. He was one of four of the Seiler boys to become Christian Brothers. His brother, Ambrose, became Brother Louis de La Salle and his brother, George, became Brother Jarlath Peter. His younger brother, Joseph, became Brother Leo Wilfred. Brother Joel Adrian completed his Novitiate and began his Scholasticate studies at St. Mary's College in Winona, Minnesota in 1935. Because of persistent lung ailments, he was assigned to Holy Family Community in Glencoe in 1938 to rest. One year later he was assigned to Christian Brothers High School in St. Louis, Missouri, where he would spend the next eighteen years teaching religion and algebra. He died there at age forty-one, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for twenty-six years.