Br. Norbert William

James Norbert Brink was born on August 1, 1946, the first of five children to Alvin and Dorothy Warmker Brink in Quincy, Illinois. Jim attended St. Francis Parish Grade School as did all of the Brink children but in 1960 he began his first encounter with the Brothers as he entered Christian Brothers High School in Quincy. Upon graduation in 1964 he entered the Postulancy at Lewis College and three months later moved to Glencoe, Missouri, for his Novitiate. Jim's intention was to be a "working Brother", using his trade skills in Brother's schools throughout the District. While in the Scholasticate in Memphis he attended Memphis State and William R. Moore School of Technology. He formed a musical group called "The Travelers" in which he played the guitar. In 1968 he was assigned to Holy Family community in Glencoe to help with the remodeling and a year later he was assigned to the Brothers' Community at Paducah, Kentucky, where he worked with coaching and grade school children. In 1975 he returned to school in Memphis to get his teaching credentials and was then assigned to La Salle High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Three years later Jim moved to Newport Catholic High School and in 1981 became Vocation Director. In 1986 he made the C.I.L. program in Rome and returned home to become Director of the Residency program. Jim developed a profound chemical imbalance that took his life at age forty-two, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for twenty-four years.