By Hawaii Catholic Herald

Longtime Damien Memorial School teacher, Christian Brother Thomas Patrick Rowland, who also spent many years as a substance abuse counselor, died in Honolulu after a short illness on Feb. 12. He was 81 and a Christian Brother for 63 years.

Remembered by colleagues as a no-nonsense teacher of Spanish, a coach, athletic director, and friend to many, Brother “Pat” was described as “a true Christian Brother in the mold of the founder of the Christian Brothers, Blessed Edmund Rice.”

Thomas P. Rowland was born on April 20, 1928 in New York City. He graduated from All Hallows Institute (high school) in New York City in 1946 and joined the Congregation of Christian Brothers in February of 1947.

After earning his bachelor of arts degree in 1956, he began his teaching career in that same year at St. Louis College, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He taught there four years, following with assignments at high schools in California, New York, Montana and Illinois.

Brother Rowland was assigned to Damien High School in Honolulu in 1965, teaching there for 13 years before being sent to Montebello, Calif. He returned to Damien, his final assignment, in 1993.

Brother Rowland did missionary work in Peru in Arequipa and Moyobamba, both in the high Andes. Much of his South America ministry centered on addictions counseling, primarily for alcoholism.

During his 10 years in Peru, he became well known for his weekly radio programs on addictive behavior and addiction in general. These broadcasts were heard on short-wave radio in seven countries of South America.

For the past decade, he was a near daily volunteer with the Salvation Army in Honolulu taking on various jobs associated with those stricken with substance abuse.

Brother Rowland’s funeral was Feb. 25 in the St. Damien Chapel on the school campus. He was interred at Hawaiian Memorial Park Cemetery in Kaneohe.