Brother Ronald A. Bonti, C.F.X., 80, a member of the Congregation of the Brothers of Saint Francis Xavier for nearly 64 years, died March 14 at the Kaplan Family Hospice House.

Born in Brooklyn, he was a graduate of St. Michael’s H.S., Sunset Park. He entered the Xaverian Brothers in September of 1949 and was invested with the holy habit on March 19, 1950, taking the name Brother Vernon.

After earning his degree from Catholic University, Washington, D.C., he taught at Mount St. Joseph H.S., Baltimore, Md., 1955-61, and Flaget H.S., Louisville, Ky., 1961-64.

He served in the Xaverian Mission in Bolivia for more than a decade before returning to the U.S. in 1977. He taught at Xaverian H.S., Bay Ridge, from 1977 until his retirement in 2006.

He is survived by one sister, Olga Bonti of Brooklyn.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated in the chapel of St. John’s Prep, Danvers, Mass., March 16. Burial followed in the Xaverian Brothers’ Cemetery, Danvers.