Brother Terence McLaughlin, FSC, was honored with the Brother John Johnston, FSC Award for his significant contributions to the Lasallian mission on November 16, 2023, during the opening night of the Huether Lasallian Conference.
Brother Terence served for more than 55 years in Lasallian schools in a variety of roles, including as a teacher, coach, athletic director and administrator.
Most notably, he served as president (1962-1964) of the then-combined Christian Brothers High School and Christian Brothers College (now University) in Memphis, Tennessee. While president, Brother Terence made history in 1963 by racially integrating Christian Brothers High School years before any other all-white high school in Memphis. He has spent much of his life fighting for the rights of students to receive a human and Christian education.
Brother Terence first encountered the Christian Brothers as a student at Cathedral High School in Duluth, Minnesota. He then transferred to La Salle Institute in Glencoe, Missouri, and entered the juniorate to begin his discernment with the Brothers. After graduation, he entered the novitiate, took his first vows and began studying at Saint Mary’s College in Winona, where he would receive his bachelor’s degree in 1944. He also earned a master’s from De Paul University and holds honorary doctorates from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois.
Brother Terence, who will turn 101 in December, retired in 2000 and moved back to Memphis where he continues to volunteer and inspire the ministry at Christian Brothers University (CBU). The McLaughlin Social Justice Institute (MSJI) of Lasallian Practice at CBU is named in honor of Brother Terence. MSJI is a two-week intensive academic, community and field experience program hosted at CBU where students learn about issues pertaining to social justice and inequity, particularly for people living in poverty and on the margins.
David Archer, CBU president, and Brother Tom Sullivan, director of Lambert Hall Community at CBU, presented Brother Terence with the award in October. A video of the presentation will be shown at the Huether Conference, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
Established by the former Regional Education Board in 2009, the Johnston Award is now presented by the Lasallian Education Council (LEC). It was named in honor of Brother John, the 25th Superior General of the Brothers of the Christian School, for his uniquely significant lifetime contribution to the Lasallian mission. The Johnston Award recognizes Brother and Lasallian Partners who, like Brother John, have endeavored on the international or Regional levels over the course of many years to advance the Institute’s mission to provide a human and Christian education to the young, especially the poor. It is presented to those whose leadership, teaching, evangelization or scholarly research and writing have borne witness to an abiding faith and zeal, and whose efforts have had a transformative impact upon the founding story as lived today.
Previous distinguished recipients of the Johnston Award include Brother Miguel Campos, FSC; Brother Luke Salm, FSC; Father Kenan Osborne, OFM; Brother Frederick Mueller, FSC; Brother William Mann, FSC; Brother Lawrence Goyette, FSC; Brother James Gaffney, FSC; Gery Short, AFSC; Brother Jeffery Calligan, FSC; Brother Gerard Rummery, FSC, Roxanne Eubank, Ed.D., and Mary Catherine Fox, AFSC, Ph.D., and Brother Robert Schieler, FSC.