Rev. Richard Mannes MCDERMOTT, O.P.

MCDERMOTT, KNOWLES, MILLER, REINHARDT

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:45

December 28, 1900 --- November 28, 1957

THE REVEREND RICHARD MANNES McDERMOTT, O.P.
The first of a series of deaths to sadden Saint Joseph's Province during the closing weeks of 1957 and the opening days of 1958 was that of the Rev. R. M. McDermott, O.P., who died in St. Michael's Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, on November 28th, 1957, after a long illness. His demise followed shortly upon that of his brother, the Rev. John P. McDermott, O.P., who died on July 1st, 1957.

Richard Mannes McDermott was born in Eagle Grove, Iowa, on December 28th, 1900, and was educated by the Dominican Sisters at Sacred Heart Elementary and High School there. He studied at Aquinas College High School in Columbus, Ohio, and St. Charles College, Catonsville, Maryland, before entering the Dominican Order at St. Joseph's Priory, Somerset, Ohio, where he made his profession on August 24th, 1923. He pursued courses in Philosophy and Theology at St. Rose Priory, Springfield, Kentucky, and the Dominican Houses of Study in River Forest, Illinois, and Washington, D. C. He was ordained on June 17th, 1929, at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception by the late Archbishop Michael J. Curley of Baltimore. After receiving his M.A. from Manhattan College in New York City, Father McDermott was assigned to Fenwick High School, Oak Park, Illinois, where he taught until June, 1936, when he was assigned to St. Pius' Parish in Chicago. In 1938, he was appointed Director of the Deserving Poor Boys' Priesthood Association with residence at St. Vincent Ferrer Priory, New York City. In 1941, he was elected Prior and Pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Church in New York. Six years later, he became Prior and Pastor of Holy Name Church, Philadelphia, which posts he held when he was stricken by illness in 1956. Since that time, he had been in residence at Saint Antoninus' Priory, Newark, New Jersey.

The officers of the Solemn Requiem Mass offered for the soul of Father McDermott in St. Antoninus Church in Newark on November 30th, 1957, were all classmates of the deceased. The celebrant, the Rev. William J. McLaughlin, O.P., and the subdeacon, the Rev. Edward M. Heffernan, O.P., are both of Holy Name Priory, Philadelphia, while the deacon, the Rev. Edward A. McDermott, O.P., is on the staff of Providence College. The Acolytes were the Very Rev. James C. Kearney, O.P., and the Rev. N. J. Walsh, O.P. The Very Rev. Harold C. Boyd, O.P., P.G., preached the eulogy and the Very Rev. Walter B. Sullivan, O.P., P.G., Prior and Pastor of St. Antoninus Priory, Newark, gave the Final Absolution. More than 100 Dominican priests were in attendance. Interment took place at the Dominican Plot, All Souls' Cemetery, Pleasantville, New York.

Father McDermott is survived by a brother, the Very Rev. Terence S. McDermott, O.P., S.T.M., former Vicar-General of the Dominican Order and former Provincial of St. Joseph's Province, and three sisters, Mrs. Catherine Knowles, Jersey City, Mrs. Mary Reinhardt, Kansas City, Mo., and Mrs. Irene Miller, Santa Monica, Calif. To them and to all his relatives and friends, Domimcana offers its sincere condolences.

https://www.dominicanajournal.org/wp-content/files/old-journal-archive/vol43/no1/dominicanav43n1obituaryreverendrichardmannesmc.pdf