OBITUARIES
'Brother Ed' Gomez, educator, dead at 64
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Brother Edward L.K. Gomez dedicated his life to God, St. Louis School and the educational mission of the Marianist Order.
Advertiser library photo
"That was his calling," said James Burns, chief judge of the Intermediate Court of Appeals and president of the St. Louis Alumni Association. "He had a great rapport with the kids, a great love for the school and its religious mission."
Edward Gomez was the St. Louis School principal from 1982 to 1986.
Gomez, 64, died Monday at the Marianist residence on the Kalaepohaku campus on Wai'alae Avenue that he so loved.
"I never knew him to say no," said Burns, who graduated from St. Louis in 1955, a year ahead of Gomez. "He loved what he was doing, was suited for it and did it very well."
Known simply as "Brother Ed," Gomez was honored in May 2001 as St. Louis Alumnus of the Year. His lifelong relationship with the school began in 1944, when he first stepped into a St. Louis School classroom as a first-grader. Gomez, who joined the Marianist Order at age 19, earned his college degree from St. Mary's College in California, majoring in French, and his master's degree in counseling from the University of San Francisco.
He taught Spanish and French at St. Louis from 1961 to 1967 and served as the school's principal from 1982 to 1986. Gomez was also principal at Junipero High in California, St. Anthony's School on Maui and assistant provincial of the Marianist Province of the Pacific.
The first Hawai'i-born Marianist to serve in the Rome-based headquarters of the Marianist Order, he spent five years at the Vatican overseeing the educational activities of 16 Marianist provinces in 31 countries on six continents.
In recent years, Gomez has been the vice president of the Marianist Center, which serves as the landlord for St. Louis School and Chaminade University.
Services are pending.
The school announced yesterday that donations in the memory of "Brother Ed" can be made to the Gomez Family Scholarship Endowment Fund, set up by him and his father. Checks made payable to the endowment fund may be mailed to the St. Louis School Education Foundation at 3142 Wai'alae Ave., Honolulu, HI 96816.
