Brother Laurence Krish. assigned to the Vicariate of Nigeria for nearly twenty years, was killed in an automobile accident on February 27, 1981, when a large truck crashed suddenly into the car he was driving on the road between Funtua and Malumfashi. Following funeral services on March 3, he was buried in the community cemetery near Our Lady of Fatima Church in Gusau. Sokoto State, Nigeria.

Franz Joseph Krish was born in New York City on September 30, 1931. He attended public primary schools in Brooklyn and Fly Creek, New York, and Richfield Spring Central High School in Richfield Springs New York. Soon after graduating from high school in 1949. he joined the United States Air Force and spent four years at various air bases as a Senior Aircraft Mechanic and Ground Crew Chief. While in the service, he met several Dominican priests who encouraged him to consider becoming a Dominican when his tour of duty ended. Six weeks after his discharge from the Air Force he began his postulancy as a Dominican cooperator brother at St. Thomas Aquinas Priory in River Forest. Illinois. He entered he novitiate in River Forest on April 30, 1954 and took Laurence as his religious name.

Shortly after first profession on May 1. 1955, Brother Laurence was assigned to the maintenance staff at St. Rose Priory in Dubuque, Iowa. After hi solemn profession of vows in 1961, he was sent to the Vicariate of Nigeria where he immediately began serving the mission station in the northern part of the country by tending to maintenance of buildings and vehicles, by helping with the construction of new building, and by developing job training programs in automotive mechanics.

In 1975. Brother Laurence became interested in concentrating his efforts on teaching religion, especially to young people on a secondary level of studies. He taught classes at Holy Family Cathedral in Sokoto St. Theresa in Funtua, and St incent Ferrer in Malumfashi. A Certificate in Religious Studies, granted by the University of Ibadan in 1976, gave him a position with the Nigerian public-school system that made it possible for him to return to the States each year to continue his studies. At the time of his death, he headed the Department of Christian Religion at the Boys' Government Secondary school in Malumfashi. He hoped soon to begin work for a master's degree in theology and to devote his entire life to this educational apostolate in Nigeria.