Br. Lambert Thomas

James Leslie Matthews, although he considered himself a native of North Dakota, was born at Estavan, Saskatchewan, Canada, on February 12, 1916, the son of James and Georgina Marion Hitchcock Matthews. James' older brother had entered the Brothers and James, now twenty-two years of age, followed on April 17, 1938 when he entered the Novitiate at Glencoe, Missouri, from his father's farm in North Dakota, where the family had emigrated. He received the habit of the Brothers in July, 1938 and the religious name of Brother Lambert Thomas. Brother Lambert's first teaching assignment came as a member of the Novitiate staff in Glencoe from 1939-1943. He was assigned to De La Salle High School, in Kansas City in 1943 and to Christian Brothers College in St. Louis in 1944 to teach and study at St. Louis University. He received his Ph.D. there in 1948 and was assigned as Sub-Director of Christian Brothers College in Memphis, Tennessee. He became Director and President there in 1953 and Director of Scholastics there in 1962. He was appointed Visitor of the District, to succeed his older brother, Brother I. Philip, in 1963. Brother Lambert Thomas was reappointed Visitor in 1966 and again in 1969. During his years as Visitor the Central States District was formed. After attending a meeting of Brothers Visitor of the United States in Baltimore, Maryland, he died in the crash of Allegheny flight #853 over Shelbyville, Indiana, when the plane collided with a private plane. His remains and those of the other fatalities of the crash were buried in Shelbyville. He died at age fifty-three, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for thirty-one years.