Brother William Herbst, O.F.M., a member of Holy Name Province, the largest community of Franciscan friars in the U.S., is celebrating 25 years as a friar this summer.

Herbst is the province’s assistant director of postulancy, working out of offices at St. Paul Friary in Wilmington, Del. He was honored, along with other jubilarians celebrating 25- and 50-year anniversaries, at the province-wide Mass and celebration in June in Manhattan.

Born in Brooklyn and a graduate of John Jay H.S., Park Slope, he enlisted in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, serving with the military police in the Aleutian Islands and Arkansas.

Entering religious life was a second career. At 38 years of age, he left the refrigeration and air conditioning business to study theology and to minister to those in need.

He also attended Memphis State University, while living and working in Tennessee in 1974. He completed his religious studies at Fordham University in the Bronx.

The friar also worked at Holy Name parish, Manhattan, as a pastoral associate, and at Holy Cross Church in the Bronx.