OBITUARY | Brother DuWayne Brisendine, SM

Brother DuWayne Brisendine, SM, died Dec. 18 in San Antonio. He was 89 years old and a Marianist for 71 years.
A devoted teacher and administrator for many decades, Brother DuWayne knew even as a teenager that he desired to devote his life to the service of Mary. In his letter requesting permission to take first vows, he wrote, “I have acquired a great love and confidence in Our Lady, and this is how I want to spend my life – serving her.”
DuWayne Brisendine was born on Dec. 13, 1935, in Addison, Michigan, one of two sons in the family of Edgar and Ardith (Cheesbro) Brisendine. As a youngster, DuWayne moved frequently, graduating from Devil’s Lake School in 1949.
During his freshman year of high school at East Intermediate (Jackson, Michigan), DuWayne entered the Catholic Church, receiving the sacrament of baptism at the local parish, St. Mary’s, Star of the Sea. The following year, he moved with his mother to Belleville, Illinois, where he enrolled at Cathedral High School and first encountered the Marianists.
He entered the postulancy in 1951 at Maryhurst in Kirkwood. A year later, he began novitiate at Marynook in Galesville, Wisconsin. Brother DuWayne professed first vows there on Aug. 15, 1953. He returned to Maryhurst to pursue scholasticate studies before enrolling at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics in 1956. Later, he also earned a Master of Science in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame. He professed final vows at Our Lady of the Pillar Church in St. Louis on July 13, 1958.
Brother DuWayne began his teaching career in 1956 at St. Joseph School in Victoria, Texas. Over the next 10 years, he continued this classroom work at schools in Missouri, Illinois and Colorado. Starting in 1965, he also began serving in administrative positions, taking on the assistant principal role at Roncalli High School in Pueblo, Colorado; Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis; and Central Catholic in San Antonio, Texas, where he would also be named principal in 1972. In between these assignments, Brother DuWayne did formation work in the Marianist Scholasticate at St. Mary’s University (1969-71). Additional teaching assignments followed at high schools in Missouri and Oklahoma before he then branched into college-level instruction at St. Mary’s University, where he also served in the admissions office.
He was named director of the St. Joseph Health Center in San Antonio. He then accepted the first of several international assignments, becoming principal at St. Joseph International School in Yokohama, Japan, in 1992. Returning to San Antonio in 1994, Brother DuWayne joined the archdiocesan Education Office as assistant superintendent.
From there, he went back to Japan for a difficult year spent shepherding the close of St. Joseph School, followed by time working in various Marianist ministries in India. Coming back to the United States in 1999, he served two years as business manager for St. Mark Parish in Denton, Texas.
Brother DuWayne was named secretary for the Marianists’ 2001 General Chapter meeting in Rome, Italy. He was called to Rome on a full-time basis in 2002, beginning a three-year term as communications director for the Curia Generalizia Marianisti. Brother DuWayne returned to the classroom in 2006, wrapping up more than five decades of active ministry by joining the faculty at Chaminade University in Honolulu, Hawaií. He taught there until 2012 before moving to the Woodlawn Marianist Community and the Marianist Residence in San Antonio.
Preparing to profess his first vows in 1953, Brother DuWayne wrote that he desired to “save souls through teaching.” As he noted a couple of years later, something equally important had become apparent to him in his work: “What joy there is in living a life totally consecrated to Mary!”
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