Reverend James Aloysius Driscoll, O.P.

Reverend James Aloysius Driscoll, O.P., 89, died on Thursday, Nov. 7th, at Mount St. Rita Health Centre in Cumberland. He was a member of the Dominican Friars (Order of Friars Preachers), Province of St. Joseph at the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas at Providence College. Born Francis James Driscoll on Oct. 17, 1924, in Columbus, Ohio, a son of the late Frank J. Driscoll and Gertrude (Rodenfels) Driscoll of Columbus, Ohio, he attended Aquinas College High School, The Ohio State University, and St. Charles College in Columbus. After serving in the U.S. Army 29th Infantry Division and entering Normandy shortly after D-Day, he was honorably discharged as a sergeant in 1946 and then entered the pre-ecclesiastical program at Providence College. He later received an A.B. degree in philosophy from PC in 1951. In 1947, he entered the Dominican novitiate of St. Rose Priory in Springfield, Ky., where he received the religious name Aloysius. He made his simple profession there on Aug. 5, 1948. He continued his Dominican formation at St. Joseph Priory in Somerset, Ohio, and the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where he earned his bachelor's (1953) and licentiate (1955) degrees in sacred theology from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception. He was ordained a priest in the Dominican Order on June 12, 1954, at St. Dominic Church in Washington, D.C. by the Most Rev. Bryan J. McEntegart, D.D., Rector of The Catholic University of America. He spent the next year as chaplain of federal prisons in the D.C. and Virginia area. From 1955-1956, he taught religion at Mother of Mercy Academy/Westwood in Cincinnati, Ohio. From 1956-1961, he taught philosophy and religion at La Salle College (now University), in Philadelphia, Pa. From 1961-1966, he served as chaplain and taught theology and philosophy at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. From 1966-1967, he served as chaplain and director of the Aquinas Newman Student Center at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. In 1967, Father Driscoll returned to PC to teach religious studies. He remained on the faculty as an assistant professor for forty years. He was co-director (1986-2001) and director (2001-2002) of the Graduate Program in Theology, as well as chair of the undergraduate Department of Theology (1992-2002). Outside of the classroom, he served as a dormitory rector (1967-1970); advisor to the Football Club (1967-1971) and founder of the Club's Founders Scholarship (1992); director of the Alumni Association Gridiron Association in the early 1970s; and associate chaplain to the R.O.T.C. unit for 30 years. While on leave from PC from 1971-1973, Father Driscoll studied at the University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome, Italy, from which he received a doctorate in sacred theology in 1984, and for which he later served as U.S vice president for development and alumni association director. In the late 1970s he also studied at the University of Louvain in Belgium and at Oxford University's Lincoln College in England. During the summers he taught at several colleges, including Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Barry College in Miami, Fla.; and Trinity College in Washington, D.C. Within his Dominican province, Father Driscoll served as Provincial Promoter of Studies/Provincial Director of Continuing Education from 1977-1988 and Provincial Director of Continuing Formation from 1988-1993. Father Driscoll's only sibling, his younger brother, Pvt. Thomas R. Driscoll, U.S. Army 35th Infantry Division, was killed in battle on Aug. 9, 1944, and is buried in the Brittany American Cemetery in St. James, France. Father Driscoll's body will be received into the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary in the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas at Providence College at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 12th. Visitation will take place until 7:00 p.m., when the Office of the Dead will be celebrated. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated for him there at 10:30 A.M. on Wednesday, Nov. 13th. He will then be laid to rest in the Dominican Friars' Cemetery on the PC campus. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to Providence College, Office of Advancement, 1 Cunningham Square, Providence, R.I. 02918, for the Dominican Scholarship Fund.