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Submitted: 10/26/17 • Approved: 10/26/17 • Last Updated: 10/8/22 • R22961-G0-S3
December 28, 1928 - December 26, 2016
Brother Virgil Harris, S.C., (Carl Irwin Harris), 88, a Brother of the Sacred Heart who resided at St. Clare Manor in Baton Rouge died Monday, December 26, 2016, after an extended illness. Brother Virgil, son of the late George G. Harris and his wife Marie Louise Schwartz, was a native of New Orleans. After attending St. Rose of Lima Elementary School and then St. Aloysius High School in New Orleans, he joined the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in Metuchen, NJ, in 1944. Brother Virgil graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans magna cum laude with a B.S. in Secondary Education and a major in English. He later earned a master's degree from LSU in Music Education. An accomplished musician, he played the flute, clarinet, and alto sax in high school, studying under Prof Joseph Taverna. For nine years he served as band director and taught English and Latin at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge where his students dubbed him "Little Caesar." In 1964, he initiated a band program for junior high schools in Baton Rouge. Moving to New Orleans in 1967, he worked several years at Cor Jesu High School as band director and served as music instructor in the middle schools of the Archdiocese for 13 years. Then for 17 years he worked with the poor in New Orleans as development director for Hope House while teaching private and small group lessons at Brother Martin High School. From 2000 to 2004, he developed a music program at Bishop Perry Middle School in New Orleans. Semi-retired in 2004, he worked as an assistant music teacher at St. Stanislaus in Bay St. Louis, MS, and as an instructor in the band program at two local Catholic middle schools. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he relocated to Mobile, AL., and helped with the band program at McGill-Toolen High School until his failing health forced his full retirement. Shortly after moving to the Brothers' retirement home in Baton Rouge in 2016, he required full time nursing care at St. Clare Manor where he spent the last months of his life. Throughout his life, Brother Virgil was an avid fisherman, going out religiously every week to catch trout and redfish in the waters of Louisiana. It was rare that he did not return with an ice chest full of fish which he often made available to the poor with whom him he worked. Brother Virgil was preceded in death by his parents and his brother Michael Albert Harris. He is survived by his brother George Alexander Harris and his wife Carmella of Franklinton, LA; his sister Marie Louise Harris of Metairie, La; nieces Michelle and Alicia Harris; and a nephew Alan Harris and his wife Norma. The celebration of the life of Brother Virgil Harris will be at Our Lady of the Gulf Church in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi on Tuesday, January 3, 2016 at 3:00 pm. Visitation will be in the church beginning at 2:00 pm. The funeral Mass will be followed by his interment in the Brothers of the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Bay St. Louis. A reception will follow at the Brothers' residence. Donations in memory of Brother Virgil may be sent to the Brothers of the Sacred Heart Foundation, 4600 Elysian Fields Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70122. Funeral arrangements are by Edmond Fahey in Bay St. Louis.
Contributed on 10/26/17 by debbraszymanski
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Record #: 22961