Br. Richard

Richard Kelly was born the son of Leonard and Mary Birmingham Kelly on June 1, 1946, in Kankakee, Illinois. He attended St. Patrick Grade School and High School in Kankakee and entered Notre Dame University in 1964. He graduated with his bachelor's degree from Lewis University in 1969. From 1969 to 1971 Richard taught at Driscoll Catholic High School in Addison, Illinois. He received the habit on December 7, 1971, and spent 1971-1972 at the National Lasallian Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as a novice. Brother Richard was assigned to teach at De La Salle Institute in Chicago, Illinois, in 1972 until 1980. During those years he completed his M.A. degree from Loyola University in Chicago in 1975. He was assigned as a student from 1980 to 1984 at UCLA in Los Angeles, California, where he received his Ph.D. Brother Richard was appointed Director of Development at Lewis University in Chicago, and remained there until 1988. His tour of duty includes one year as President of St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois: as Superintendent of Catholic Schools for two years for the Archdiocese of Shreveport in Louisiana; as a Counselor in Continuing Education at Lewis University for four years; a member of the community at Christian Brothers Center in 1994 and as a technical writer at the Educational Center in Romeoville in 1995 and again in residence at the Center in 1996. Brother Richard Kelly moved to his mother's home to Kankakee in 1997 to care for his ailing mother, who later died in August 2000. Brother Richard died of a sudden heart attack in Kankakee at age fifty-five, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for thirty years.