The San Francisco District’s Lasallian Education Fund (LEF) has established a scholarship fund in honor of its founder, Brother David Brennan, a lifelong educator, former president of the famed Christian Brothers’ winery in Napa, and former District Visitor. The new fund will continue Brother David’s legacy of educational service to the poor. Since the establishment of the Fund in 2003, it has distributed more than $3.3 million in scholarship funds to needy students.
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Both practical and visionary, Brother David has been innovative and persistent in recommitting the Christian Brothers to addressing the needs of the poor. As president of the Christian Brothers’ winery, he brought the business to its peak as a source of funding for education, and later, he was instrumental in selling the winery in order to refocus resources and energy on the educational mission. Brother David founded the Lasallian Education Fund (LEF) to provide financial support to deserving low-income students. He introduced the requirement that all schools in the San Francisco District dedicate a portion of their financial aid to families of very low income, and he helped to establish new schools and programs wholly dedicated to the poor and marginalized. He also engaged the District in the support of educational projects for the needy in other countries, and was a driving force behind the project undertaken at the highest levels of the international Institute of the Christian Brothers to establish a foundation that would serve the poor throughout the world.
“A man of business acumen and a man of deep faith, a man for God and a man for his Brothers, Brother David Brennan has devoted his life to the mission of the De La Salle Christian Brothers,” said Brother Donald Johanson, Visitor of the District of San Francisco. “That mission is to bring ‘a human and Christian education’ to all children who need it. In his years as a leader in Lasallian education, Brother David has been tireless in securing educational opportunities for those without the resources to pay tuition, and creating schools that have helped many students break out of the cycle of poverty into which they were born,” he added.
The Brother David Brennan Scholarship Fund (BDBSF) will distribute funds annually through the established LEF grant program, with 90% dedicated to schools and programs supported by LEF and 10% dedicated to the Lasallian International Children’s Fund providing urgent funding to international projects. Leadership gifts have already been committed to establish the Fund in his honor. Contributions to the BDBSF will help build the endowment base as part of the LEF general endowment, which supports deserving students in perpetuity at Lasallian schools and programs in the District of San Francisco. Contributions to the Brother David Brennan Scholarship Fund in honor of Brother David Brennan may be sent to: Lasallian Education Fund, 100 Shoreline Hwy, B-386, Mill Valley, CA 94941.