Br. Lawrence Joseph

James was born on August 10, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois, one of three sons and five children of Edward and Evelyn Wegesin. His brothers were Joseph and John, and his two sisters were Janice and Catherine. James entered the Christian Brothers at Glencoe, Missouri, with the reception of the Habit on May 14, 1955, when he also received the religious name of Brother Lawrence Joseph. A “year and one day” later he made his First Vows on May 15, 1956, the traditional feast of the Founder of the Brothers, John Baptist de La Salle. On May 16, the following day, he was on the bus along with his classmates to St. Mary College in Winona to begin his college studies. He completed his BS at St. Mary’s in 1959 and later completed his MBA at Xavier University, in Cincinnati. Brother Lawence’s first teaching assignment was at Benilde High School in St. Louis Park, Minnesota in August of 1959. Three years later he was assigned to LaSalle High School in Cincinnati, Ohio for one year before moving north again to teach at Pacelli High School in Stevens Point, Wisconsin in 1963. When the St. Louis District split into three separate Districts, Brother James became part of the Winona (St. Paul – Minneapolis) District. Five years later he was welcomed at De La Salle High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he taught until the spring of 1974. That same year he was assigned to St. Patrick High School in Chicago but remained there only one year before beginning his work at the Christian Brothers National Office in Romeoville, Illinois located on the campus of Lewis University. He spent eleven years at the National Office and an additional eight years at Christian Brothers Services at the same location. He served for two decades as Manager of Employee Health and Retirement Benefits and administered the Christian Brothers Employee Benefit Trust and the Christian Brothers Employee Retirement Plan serving thousands of lay employees of Catholic institutions. In 1995 Brother Lawrence was assigned to De La Salle Institute in Chicago where he spent the next 20 years teaching. He retired in 2015 and remained in the De La Salle Community until 2018 when he moved to Resurrection Life Center in Chicago. One of his great enjoyments was trains and cable cars. During his travels, he would always explore the local city’s public transit system, especially if it included trains. His knowledge of trains and the history of American railroads and urban cable car systems was extensive. H served as a tour guide at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. A talented painter, James also painted model trains and cable car replicas and maintained an extensive collection. He died late in the afternoon on September 17, 2020, in Des Plaines, Illinois, and his funeral was held at St. James Parish on Wabash Avenue in Chicago on September 24, 2020. Due to the pandemic only 40 people were permitted to attend. He was laid to rest at Resurrection Cemetery having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for sixty-five years.