Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (portrait at left) was the seventeenth century founder of the Christian Brothers, the same order that started De La Salle Academy and High School in Kansas City.

St. de la Salle was born in France in 1651. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1678 and then helped to establish a free school for the poor in 1679. He fell in love with this work and subsequently renounced his wealth and spent the rest of his life forming and training teachers and spreading free schools for the poor throughout France. He died in 1719.

The former Catholic De La Salle school that closed in 1971 was named after this innovative educator who was the pioneer in providing a quality education for those most in need. The DeLaSalle Education Center then "borrowed" this name when it was established, also in 1971.

We're proud to be associated, even indirectly, with such a wonderful historic figure as Jean-Baptiste de la Salle!