Rev. Terence Stephen MCDERMOTT, O.P.

MCDERMOTT, REINHARDT, REINHART, KNOWLES

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

March 14, 1887 ---- April 5, 1963

THE VERY REVEREND TERENCE S. McDERMOTT, O.P.
On April 5, 1963, the Very Reverend Terence Stephen McDermott, O.P.,S.T.M., former Vicar General of the Order and ex-Provincial of the Province of St. Joseph, died in New York City after a long illness. Father McDermott governed the province for twenty-five years, from 1931 to 1955. He is the only Dominican in the history of the Order to complete six consecutive terms as Provincial. Greatly increased vocations, an entirely new province, that of St. Albert the Great, and highly varied and extensive apostolic activity were the hallmarks of his provincialate. Papal recognition was brought to theological studies in the province when a pontifical faculty of theology was established by Pope Pius XII in 1941 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington. In 1950 a new house of philosophy was begun at Dover, Massachusetts. Father McDermott encouraged the growth of the increasingly prominent Providence College, and saw the dedication of five new academic buildings there. During his tenure of office, popular schools of theology for the laity were developed and such magazines as The Thomist and Thomistic Studies were founded, together with Blackfriars, the well-known New York theatrical group.

The zeal of the former Provincial for home missions was evidenced in foundations made at Raleigh, North Carolina, and Columbia and Kingstree in South Carolina. He presided over the building or extensive renovation of Dominican priories in New York City; Youngstown, Ohio; Providence, Rhode Island; Washington, D.C.; New Haven, Conn.; Springfield, Ky.; Somerset, Ohio; Pleasantville and Hawthorne, New York.

Father McDermott was born at Thrall, Wright Co., Iowa on March 14, 1887. He was educated in the Iowa schools, at St. Joseph's near Somerset,
Ohio, and at the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C. He was ordained in the chapel of Caldwell Hall, Catholic University of America on June 25, 1913 by Bishop Owen B. Corrigan, Auxiliary of Baltimore, Md. He taught in the Dominican House of Studies from 1915 to 1917 and later was an army chaplain during World War I. He was appointed pastor at Holy Name Church, Kansas City, Mo. and then St. Catherine of Siena, New York. He was elected prior at the House of Studies in Washington, D.C. and in 1931 became Provincial. Upon the sudden death of the Most Reverend Emmanuel Suarez, O.P., in July, 1954, Father McDermott became Vicar General of the Order and remained in that office until the election of Father (now Cardinal) Michael Browne as Master General in April, 1955.

On April 8, the Very Reverend William D. Marrin, O.P., Provincial, sang the Solemn Requiem Mass in St. Vincent Ferrer Church, New York. The deacon and subdeacon were the Very Reverend Mariner T. Smith, O.P., former Procurator General, and the Reverend Edward A. McDermott, O.P., respectively. Attending the Mass were the Most Rev. Philip J. Furlong, Auxiliary of New York; Most Rev. John W. Comber, M.M.; and over two hundred priests and religious.

To his sisters, Mrs. Mary Reinhart and Mrs. Kate Knowles, and to the Brethren and many friends of this outstanding Dominican, Dominicana extends its sincerest sympathy.

https://www.dominicanajournal.org/wp-content/files/old-journal-archive/vol48/no2/dominicanav48n2obituaryveryreverendterencesm.pdf