Alumni and others connected to Calvert Hall College High School in Towson and to the De La Salle Christian Brothers mourned the April 12 death in Philadelphia of Chistian Brother Kevin Stanton at the age of 86, just three days shy of his 87th birthday.
Brother Kevin served at Calvert Hall in several capacities, beginning with seven years as a teacher of chemistry and religion from 1961 to 1968. He returned in 1996 as principal and stayed on as president of the school from 2001 to 2005. He also worked at two different times in administration for the Baltimore-based District of Eastern North America of the De La Salle Christian Brothers, from 1973 to 1979 and again in 2008 to 2009.
Matt Radebaugh, a 1998 graduate of Calvert Hall, recalled Brother Kevin as a calm, composed influence as principal. Radebaugh was so positively influenced by the Christian Brothers that he returned to the school as a lay teacher in 2004 and has been there ever since. He currently is chairman of the social studies department, where he teaches psychology, government and world history.
“He had a very calm, monotone way of speaking,” Radebaugh recalled, adding that that first impression hid Brother Kevin’s robust sense of humor.
A Christmas skit in Radebaugh’s senior year had a Wizard of Oz theme, he explained. As a gag, the student portraying the Tin Woodman approached then-principal Brother Kevin, who was not a part of the skit but was seated onstage. The character, who in the story is freed from rusted body parts by the application of oil to his stiff joints, pretended to apply the lubrication to Brother Kevin, to loosen him up.
“It killed as a skit,” Radebaugh remembered. “He thought it was hilarious.”
After Radebaugh graduated he stayed in touch intermittently with Brother Kevin and they would catch up at events over the years. “It was always really cool when he came to visit,” he said.
Born Martin John Stanton in Philadelphia April 15, 1938, he was raised in Southwest Philadelphia and graduated from West Catholic High School for Boys, where he later served as a teacher starting in 1968 and then was principal from 1970 to 1973. He returned to the faculty again in the 1990s. It was while at West Catholic that he decided on a religious vocation as a Christian Brother, according to his obituary shared by the De La Salle brothers.
Radebaugh said Brother Kevin was an example of “our greatest asset as a school – the faculty.”
“I wanted to come back because I had such positive role models,” he said. “I learned how to be a moral person.”
Brother Robert Schieler, now director of the community of brothers living at La Salle University, grew up in the same Philadelphia neighborhood as Brother Kevin. They attended the same elementary and high schools, albeit 12 years apart. Brother Robert said that connection from their childhood remained an important tie even to Brother Kevin’s last years.
He described his longtime friend as always ready to lend a hand, no matter what position he held among the brothers, no matter what the need. For instance, Brother Robert said, even in his last years, Brother Kevin took responsibility for facilities maintenance in the De La Salle community. If that meant the 80-something-year-old was taking out the trash, that was a task he handled uncomplainingly.
“He was a lovely man,” Brother Robert said. One attribute for which his fellow brother was known was his neatness. “His dresser drawers, his closet, everything were arranged perfectly. He was a neat freak” But when another brother would occasionally intentionally rearrange Brother Kevin’s belongings as a joke, “he took it gracefully and with humor.”
Brother Kevin earned a bachelor’s degree in theology at La Salle University and a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame. He is survived by two sisters, a brother, 12 nieces and nephews and 24 grand nieces and nephews.
A funeral Mass was offered April 21 at La Salle University.
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