Br. Josephus of Jesus

Joseph Slyer was born the son of Edmund J. and Mary Gallagher Slyer on October 30, 1904, in St. Louis, Missouri. Joseph attended Christian Brothers High School there and entered the Juniorate at Glencoe on May 22, 1922, and received the habit and entered the Novitiate on August 30, 1924. He completed his Scholasticate studies and was assigned in 1928 to Cotter High School in Winona, Minnesota, for five years before being transferred to Cretin high School in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1933. Brother Josephus was named Sub-Director of the Juniorate in 1934, taught in 1935 at St. George High School in Evanston, Illinois, the following year, and returned from 1936 to 1938 at the Juniorate. He was an exchange Brother at Mont St. Louis in Montreal, Canada, in 1938 and was Director at Boys Town, Nebraska, in 1939. The remainder of his tour of duty includes: De La Salle High School in Chicago, 1940-41; Director at De La Salle High School in Kansas City, Missouri, 1941-44; Director at Cotter High School in Winona, 1944-50; Assistant Principal/Director at St. George High School in Evanston, 1950-51; St. Mel High School in Chicago, 1951-52 and 1954-55; Price College in Amarillo, Texas, 1952-54 and 1955-57; Vocation Director, 1957-61 for St. Louis District and 1961-63 in the Winona District; Director at La Salle High School in Cedar Rapids, 1963-65; Assistant Principal at Hill High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1965-68, Christian Brothers National Office in Romeoville, Illinois; 1968-74. Brother Josephus of Jesus retired to De La Salle Center in Lafayette, Louisiana, in 1974 and died there in 1994 at the age of ninety, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for seventy-two years. He officially changed to the New Orleans-Santa Fe District in 1982.