Br. Lawrence Porretta

Lawrence Patrick Porretta was born on July 17, 1948, in Detroit, Michigan, the fourth child of Patrick and Madeline Nader Porretta. His family moved to Chicago in 1960 where Larry attended St. Patrick High School. After graduation in 1966 he entered the Chicago District, making his Novitiate at Glencoe, Missouri. On August 24, 1966, he received the habit, but by then the custom of religious names had ceased. He made his Scholasticate at Lewis College and received his B.A. in May of 1970. His first teaching assignment was to Gabriels High School in Lansing, Michigan, as a religion teacher from 1969 to 1971. Brother Larry's great personal interest in social work led him to request an assignment at New York Christian Brothers' Lincoln Hall, a child care facility for youths remanded by the juvenile court. After only one semester there he was assigned to St. Paul High School in Chicago where while maintaining his teaching duties he edited the Religious Education Newsletter for the District. In 1972 he received his MA in teaching from St. Mary's College in Winona. From 1974 to 1976 he was Director of Retreats at La Salle Manor in Plano, Illinois, and from 1976 to 1978 he was the Vocation Director for the Chicago District. Brother Larry was assigned to De La Salle Institute in Chicago in 1978 and at the same time began a master's degree in social work at Loyola University. He was next assigned to St. Joseph's High School in Westchester and in 1982 to Lewis University where he spent the remainder of his life as a college professor. He completed his master's work and entered the doctoral program at the University of Illinois and in 1987 completed that degree. He devoted much of his energy toward building up the Social Work department at Lewis University. In 1993 cancer was discovered and it took his life in August of 1994. He was forty-six years old and had been a De La Salle Christian Brother for twenty-eight years. Shortly after his death he was named "Professor Emeritus" by Lewis University.