Submitted by: Dan Rich

Br. Bennet (Thornton) Nettleton CSC

March 7, 1922 - Nov. 17, 2003

South Bend Tribune 11/19/2003

Brother Bennet Nettleton, CSC, 81, died at Dujarie House, Notre Dame, Ind., on Monday, Nov. 17, after a lengthy illness. Br. Bennet was born in Baton Rouge, La., the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. T. Bennet Nettleton.

He attended Catholic elementary and secondary schools in Baton Rouge, and matriculated for a year at Louisiana State University in that same city. After working for three years after high school in his father's recreational machine factory, he joined Holy Cross in September 1941. He received the habit of the brothers on Feb. 1, 1942, at St. Joseph's Novitiate, Rolling Prairie, Ind., and a year later pronounced his first vows as a religious. He made his perpetual profession of the vows on Aug. 16, 1946, at Notre Dame, Ind., and remained there to graduate in 1946 with a concentration in social studies. He earned a master's in history in 1952 after further studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and at Notre Dame.

From 1946-1952 he taught history at Cathedral High School, Indianapolis, Ind., then was assigned for a year to Catholic Central High School, Monroe, Mich., before being asked in 1953 to teach at the new St. Edward High School, Lakewood, Ohio, an assignment that lasted 50 years. Health concerns in January 2001 required him to take up residence at Dujarie House, the brothers' infirmary at Notre Dame, where he resided until his death.

Br. Bennet taught three grateful generations of students at St. Edward. He put endless hours into the preparation of his classes and his research, and gradually over the years assembled valuable and meaningful artifacts for display in his classroom as in a museum. When he retired from St. Edward, the school, in tribute to this most effective teacher, formally constituted a museum in his honor. For many years he also supervised the staff of the school cafeteria, no mean task in an institution capable of serving over 1600 students.

A southerner by birth, Br. Bennet never entirely lost his Louisiana accent, which matched the relaxed and gentle nature of the man. Always smiling and optimistic, his demeanor brought to his classroom an informal but business-like atmosphere that inevitably encouraged deep interest among his students in the history of the world, especially the United States. Fellow religious residing with Br. Bennet in the faculty residence benefited from his effective fraternal presence and support, and his longevity at St. Edward as brother and teacher helped create and preserve the unique Holy Cross spirit so perceptible in the life of the school.

Visitation will begin at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, in St. Joseph's Chapel, the brothers' Holy Cross Village at Notre Dame, 54515 State Road 933. A Mass of the Resurrection will follow at 3 p.m., with burial immediately afterward at St. Joseph's Cemetery on the village grounds. The Kaniewski Funeral Home is handling arrangements.