Lawrence Charles Backus

BROTHER LAWRENCE BACKUS, C.S.C. December 20, 1941 - October 18, 2020 Lawrence Charles Backus was the only son of Lawrence Backus and Grace Rhodes. They were both from Brooklyn; Larry said his father was a foreman of some kind and his mother a homemaker and teacher. There were two younger sisters in the family. Larry was born in Queens Village, New York on Long Island on December 20, 1941. He was baptized there at St. Joachim and Anne Parish. By the time he was confirmed in November of 1955, his family had moved to Dunellen, New Jersey. Larry graduated from St. John's School in Dunellen and went on to St. Peter's High School in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he graduated in 1959. After high school, Larry joined the Brothers of Holy Cross going to St. Joseph's Juniorate in Valatie, New York. He then entered the novitiate there on August 22, 1959 and made his first profession of vows on August 23, 1960. He professed his perpetual vows on August 23, 1963 in Valatie, New York as well. After the novitiate, Brother Lawrence went to complete his undergraduate studies at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas. He earned a BS from there with the distinction Magna Cum...[more]

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ude in 1963. After graduating he spent the next twenty years in secondary schools. After that he was certified in CPE and became a chaplain in the prisons in New York. In 2011 he moved to Austin, Texas where he served several years as an administrative assistant for the Province Center. He retired in 2013 and lived at St. Joseph Hall. As his Parkinson's got worse, he decided to move to the Brother Vincent Pieau Residence where he could get more care. He passed away quietly while sitting in his chair in his room on the morning of October 18, 2020. A Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated at the Brother Vincent Pieau Residence on October 22, 2020; he will be buried at the community cemetery in Valatie, New York.