By Brian Peachey
Marist Brother Redmond Casey, who has celebrated his Diamond anniversary of religious life was a teacher in Bunbury, Northam and Subiaco, then known by his religious name, Brother Pius.
He was the fourth eldest in a well-known Casey family of eight children.
Born in Perth in 1933 and educated at St Ildephonsus College in New Norcia, he entered the Marist Juniorate in Macedon, Victoria, in 1951.
The following year he moved to Mittagong in New South Wales where he was professed as Brother Pius.
As well as the three schools in WA he taught in all States of the Marist Melbourne Province.
During 1995 he completed and published a genealogical study, The Caseys of Western Australia, the subjects being all the descendants of John and Mary Casey, who left Omagh in Ireland and arrived in Australia in 1853.
He painstakingly recorded 295 descendants by date of birth, but 17 years later the number had quadrupled.
In 1997, then in his 65th year, his life changed dramatically.
The Marist Provincial invited him to move to Santa Teresa in the Northern Territory, 83 kilometres southeast of Alice Springs, to teach in the school established by the Marist Brothers in 1952.
Santa Theresa is a community of some 600 Arrente-speaking Aboriginal people in what is a small, well-run town, isolated in rugged country near the centre of Australia.
It has all facilities, health clinic, school, church, swimming pool and football ground, providing work for the community.
Today ‘Brother Red,’ as the whole town calls him, drives the town bus. Everyone knows him and refers to him as Grandfather, a term of respect.
Brother Casey is close to all his Casey family in Western Australia especially his sister Denise, one year younger, who, like him, was educated in New Norcia and is soon to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee as a Sister of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
His nephew Father Steven Casey is the Parish Priest at Karratha.