Braun, Father William
1964, October 8
Date of Birth: 1918, January 4
William Braun was born on January 4, 1918, in Baltimore, Maryland. His early schooling, from 1924 to 1930, was in the parochial school of Baltimore’s St. John the Evangelist Church. From 1930 to 1934 he attended Loyola High School in Baltimore, and from 1934 to 1936 he attended Loyola College in Baltimore. He entered St. Mary’s Seminary, Paca Street, in 1936. On completing his Philosophy there, he was assigned to the North American College in Rome for studies at the Gregorian University. On the outbreak of war in Europe, he was recalled in 1940 to the United States, and entered St. Mary’s Seminary, Roland Park, to finish his Theology. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 30, 1942, by Archbishop Curley of Baltimore.
Father Braun spent the first seven years of his priesthood as an assistant at St. Dominic’s Church in Baltimore. In 1949 he became a candidate for St. Sulpice and joined the faculty of St. Charles College in Catonsville, Maryland. Two years later he was assigned to the Solitude at St. Mary’s Seminary, Paca Street. On completing Solitude, he was reassigned to St. Charles until 1959, when, for a year, he served as an assistant at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Middle River, on the outskirts of Baltimore. In 1960, Father Braun went to St. Joseph’s College in Mountain View, California. From there he was in 1963 transferred to St. Thomas Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In December of 1963 he became seriously ill and returned to Baltimore, where he took up residence at St. Charles College. He died of cancer in old St. Joseph’s Hospital on October 8, 1964.
Adapted from Father Braun’s “Personal Data” sheet and from a clipping in his personal file provided by Father John Bowen.