Br. Leonidas Norman

Norman Lin McCarthy was born on April 2, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Francis and Oliver McCarthy. He had two brothers: Fred and Donald and one sister, Kaye. Norman attended De La Salle High School in Chicago and in his senior year entered the Juniorate in Glencoe. The following year he entered the Novitiate and received the religious name of Brother Leonidas Norman. He completed his B.A. degree at St. Mary’s College in Winona, cum laude, in 1960, and was assigned to teach at St. George High School in Evanston, Illinois. After four years there he was assigned to De La Salle High School in Kansas City, Missouri, for one year before entering the House of Studies in St. Louis, Missouri. He completed his M.Ed in 1965 from St. Mary’s and was assigned in 1966 to Costa Catholic High School in Galesburg. He became Assistant Principal at Costa but in 1971 he was chosen to participate in the CIL program in Rome, Italy, for the study of formation. The following year, 1972, Norman was assigned as sub-director of the Novitiate in Glencoe. In 1973 he was assigned to the Scholasticate at Stritch Hall at Christian Brothers College in Memphis, Tennessee. After four years teaching in the Scholasticate program he was assigned to teach at Newport Catholic High School in Newport, Kentucky. In 1979 he was assigned to teach at Roncalli High School in Omaha, Nebraska and remained there for three years before being assigned to the staff at CIL in Rome, Italy. One year later he returned to Roncalli where he remained for two more years. Archbishop O’Hara High School in Kansas City, Missouri, welcomed Norman in 1985 and he taught there for five years before being assigned to Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1990. He taught there only one year before being appointed the Director of Formation for the St. Louis District. In 1992 Norman returned to Bishop Kelley High School where he would spend the remaining sixteen years of his life. Health concerns necessitated his moving to the Franciscan Villa in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa. He suffered several strokes which were “unexpected and quite suddenly led to his death at St. John’s Hospital on October 13, 2008.” Norman was 70 years old and had been a De La Salle Christian Brother for 53 years.