North American Scholar

O'TOOLE, Rev. William Bernard

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  • Date of Birth (YYYY-MM-DD): 1897-04-18
  • Born City: Painesville
  • Born State/Country: OH
  • Date of Death (YYYY-MM-DD): 1968-07-25
  • Death City: Houston
  • Death State/Country: TX
  • Education:

    Study at St. Michael's College, U. Toronto, 1916-18B.A. U. Toronto, 1924; M.A., 1938; study at St. Basil's Seminary; Ontario College of Education, Toronto, 1924-5; U. Chicago.
  • Professional Experience:

    Lat. tchr. Houston, 1919-21; ordained RC priest, 1924; Lat. tchr., Assumption Coll., Windsor (ON) 1925-6, 1933-4; Toronto, 1926-9; Detroit, 1929-33; instr. to prof, class. St. Michael's Coll., U. Toronto, 1934-42, 1943-6; pastoral work in Houston, TX, 1959-68.
  • Notes:

    Father O'Toole was, like Odysseus, short of stature, witty and resourceful, a plucky sportsman in his youth, and in the classroom very much the captain of his team. He loved classics, and nothing gave him so much pleasure as the beauty and harmony of a Latin phrase, especially when preserved in a felicitous translation. Though as a major in the United States Army during World War II he wrote grimly from Europe, "This is a tense period, and the burden is a heavy one," he was also, in the postwar years, the genial master of Elmsley House at St. Michael's, warm and welcoming with his students, chuckling at life through puffs of smoke.
  • Sources:

    Dictionary Of Basilian Biography (1969); Basilian Newsletter (27 July 1968); 4 (1969) 128-9.

  • Author: M. Owen Lee