La Salle University Awards Honorary Degree
to Br. Edward Phelan,
Who Has Devoted His Life to Serving His Community

An honorary degree was presented to Brother Ed Phelan, F.S.C., sponsored by Bonni Zetick, Assistant Professor of Social Work.

When he was in high school, Ed Phelan got up the courage to tell an administrator at La Salle Academy in the Bronx that he wanted to join the order of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. He had admired the Brothers who taught there and wanted to be part of their mission.  When he finished telling the Brother of his plans, Phelan didn’t hear what he thought he’d hear: 

“What!” said the Brother. “I had to turn in the report about boys interested in being Brothers three months ago!”  

“But it didn’t change my resolve,” said Phelan, now Brother Edward Phelan, F.S.C. “There was no flash from Heaven telling me to join the order,” he said. “Seeing the Brothers interact with each other and with the boys at La Salle Academy, I grew to admire them and wanted to be that way.” 

For more than half a century, Br. Ed has been a leading force in bringing educational opportunities to children and adults who live in one of the poorest regions in America, the South Bronx. For this and many other contributions to society, Br. Ed received an honorary doctorate from La Salle University on October 5.  

La Salle Social Work Professor Bonni Zetick sponsored Phelan for the degree, and said, “Edward Phelan joined the Christian Brothers while he was a high school student. In the spirit of St. John Baptist de La Salle, he made a life-long commitment to bring education and critical services to those whose needs are great but whose resources are few. For nearly five decades, Brother Edward has fulfilled his commitment with great enthusiasm and much success.” 

In presenting him with the honor, La Salle University President Brother Michael McGinniss, F.S.C., said, “You have an admirable record of carrying out the mission of St. La Salle, combining education and social justice. You have accomplished so much because you inspire others through your faith and vision, your knowledge and talents, your work ethic and zeal. As a leader and motivator of people, you have demonstrated the possibilities of community building and self-sufficiency. Therefore, I am very pleased to confer upon you the degree Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa.” 

Br. Ed began his teaching career in 1966 when he was assigned to teach science at St. Augustine’s Parish in the South Bronx. There, he introduced a team teaching approach for the seventh and eighth grades, raised chickens on the roof of the school, and planted 1,000 pine trees from a government reforestation program.   

He eventually became principal of the school, and continued to launch innovative educational programs that created a new appreciation of learning among parents and children in an area where learning, of necessity, usually had low priority.   

Then, a new group of challenges presented itself: five parents of students at St. Augustine’s asked if he could start a school for adults.  

“The power of education is definitely a key to changing neighborhoods, changing lives,” he said. “It’s all related to education, but as much as possible the education should be very practical, starting with literacy. That can be a big help in making a change in families when parents can help their children with their schoolwork.” 

Br. Ed also spearheaded several efforts to make a college education available to working adults. The result was The School of New Resources of the College of New Rochelle, which now has 120 teachers and 1,380 students.

In 1983, Br. Ed joined Highbridge Community Life Center, a community-based organization serving the Bronx neighborhood. He taught the Center’s first literacy classes and then became Executive Director in 1986.  Under his leadership, Highbridge Community Life Center has grown from a small start-up outreach program to a well- respected multi-service organization with eight locations; a budget of $4.5 million in federal, state, city, private, corporate and foundation funds; and 110 employees serving more than 4,000 people each year.  

When the city of New York decided to relocate 3,000 homeless families to apartments in the neighborhood, Br. Ed launched Homeless to Highbridge, a transition program teaching leadership, parenting skills, and responsibility and fostering mutual support between neighbor and newcomer families.  

Around the same time, Br. Ed was inspired to renovate an old school in Goshen, NY into the Empowerment Center: a 35-bed ‘farmhouse’ where families could experience the country while they learned about parenting, literacy, leadership, and community building.  He not only supervised a huge team of volunteers to make it happen, but also managed to find donors to contribute funds for a playground, bus, green house, peace garden and two-acre organic farm.  He also arranged for a class of engineering students from Manhattan College to design a natural irrigation system.   

During these years, Br. Ed earned a master’s degree from New York University and a doctorate in Education from Fordham University.  Although he has received numerous honors for his contributions, Br. Ed says there are times when the issues of poverty, violence, and drugs overwhelms him.  

“There’s no immediate gratification from any great success; it’s all small stuff, but there was always something to point to,” he said. “Many people ask me, “how do you keep going when you’re knocking your head against the wall and not seeing great results in, say, the poverty rate. The success is in the individual, and over time you can see a lot of results in those kids who graduate from those schools, from adults who graduate from evening programs, then you see lots of results.”