Father Maguire Council 3851 - Knights Of Columbus

The Father William A. Maguire Council was chartered on May 10, 1954. A committee of charter members, Brothers: Alan Fitzgerald, Del Newdigate, Louis Roelle, Henry Rynicki and Grover Whitney, chose to have the council named after Father Maguire and their choice was unanimously approved by the membership.

William Agustus Maguire was born in Hornel, NY on December 31, 1890. Young Bill attended public grammar school in Elmira, NY and received his high school education at Patterson High School in Patterson, NJ.

Mary Ryan Maguire, Bill's mother, prayed one day Bill would enter the Holy Orders. Being preoccupied with the tedious chores of a young man, Bill probably never had this thought enter his busy mind. When his lovely mother was taken ill, Bill "stormed Heaven" on his knees daily in Saint Joseph's Parish in Patterson, NJ. Early in his fifteenth year, Bill said Good-Bye to his mother and received the parting kiss of a sad farewell.

What did Bill do now that his mother was gone? He knew his mother's prayers "stormed Heaven" too. This spiritual impact on his mind, and heart, and soul guided his footsteps to volunteer as an altar boy and onward to the priesthood.

After receiving his B.A. from Seton Hall College in South Orange, NJ in 1910, Bill then continued his studies and received his M.A. from the Catholic University, Washington, DC in 1911. His seminary training was completed at the University of Lovain, Belgium in 1915. Father Maguire was ordained for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Newark, in the private chapel of the Papal Nuncio, by Archbishop Tacci Porchelli, in Brussels on July 4, 1915.