Br. Lorian Josephus

Raymond Carl Wilhelm was born on August 21, 1922, the second son and fifth child of Ray Anthony Wilhelm and Anna Marie Hueller. He was born in Covington, Kentucky and he attended St. Thomas Catholic Grade School in Ft. Thomas. Ray entered Newport Catholic High School in 1936 and upon graduation in 1943 he entered the Novitiate in Glencoe where he received the religious name of Brother Lorian Josephus. Brother Joseph completed his college courses at St. Mary’s College in Winona, Minnesota, and was awarded his B.S.S. Degree in 1946. His first teaching assignment took him to St. Mel High School in Chicago, Illinois, where he remained until 1950. There he taught history and religion and began a lifelong devotion to the sports department of every school where he was assigned. At St. Mel he served as Athletic Director but devoted most of his extracurricular time to coaching baseball and wrestling. In 1950 he was assigned to Cretin High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, and spent seven years there before receiving a transfer to Helias High School in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1957. He remained there for only one year before returning to Cretin High School from 1958 to 1963. In the fall of 1963 he returned to his Alma Mater, Newport Catholic High School where he remained for fourteen years, teaching Latin, religion and history while coaching three sports. In 1977 Brother Joe was assigned to Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, Tennessee, for two years. Joe transferred to St. Henry High School in Erlanger, Kentucky for one year (1979-1980) and spent the following year at La Salle High School in Cincinnati. In 1982 he traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he taught for two years at St. Michael’s High School. He completed his high school teaching career with his final assignment (1984-1986) at Bishop Brossart High School in Alexandria, Kentucky. He retired to St. Anne Parish Chaplains Residence in Melbourne, Kentucky, where he lived from 1986 until 2003. His last years (2003-2011) were spent in care facilities in Silver Grove and Fort Thomas, Kentucky. Joe died on September 6, 2011 at Carmel Manor in Ft. Thomas. He had been a De La Salle Christian Brother for sixty-nine years.