Fr. Joseph Cassidy, O.P.

Cassidy, Rev. Joseph Daniel, O.P., 82, died on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010, at Mt. St. Rita Health Center in Cumberland. A distinguished bioethicist, he was a member of the Order of Preachers (Dominican Friars) of the Eastern Province of St. Joseph and of the Dominican Community of St. Thomas Aquinas at Providence College. Born Joseph Gerard Cassidy in Uxbridge, Mass., on March 16, 1928, he was the son of the late Francis Blessing Cassidy and the late Mary Lucy (Anderson) Cassidy. He attended St. Mary's Academy in Milford, Mass., and earned a B.S. in biology from Providence College in 1948. He later studied at Clark University, Worcester, Mass (1948-1949); St. Rose Priory, Springfield, Ky. (1951-1952); St. Joseph Priory, Somerset, Ohio, where he received a B.A. in philosophy in 1954; Immaculate Conception College, Washington, D.C. (1954-1958); Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio (1957-1961); The Catholic University, Washington, D.C. (1957-1961); and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C., where he received a Ph.D. in genetics in 1965. In 1950, he entered the novitiate of the Dominican Friars at St. Stephen Priory in Dover, Mass., where he received the religious name Daniel. On August 11, 1951, he made his simple profession of vows there He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest on June 11, 1957, at St. Dominic Church in Washington, D.C., by the Most Rev. Phillip M. Hannan, D.D., then-auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington. In 1965, Father Cassidy joined the faculty of Providence College as a member of the biology department until 1969. After his priestly, teaching, and research ministries took him to many institutions in the Midwest, he returned to PC in 1990 as a special lecturer in philosophy; he then served as an associate professor of humanities (1992-1994). He continued until recently as a part-time member of the philosophy department. Father Cassidy was research director of the Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research and Education Center in Braintree, Mass. (1988-1990) and continued as a consultant there until 1998. His professional memberships included the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory (genetics researcher, 1959-1975) and the Convivium/Faith and Science Dialogue there, the Catholic Academy of Sciences in the United States of America, the U.S. Naval War College Foundation, and the Center for the Advanced Study of Ethics and the Center for Clinical Bioethics of Georgetown University. He wrote numerous articles, abstracts, and chapters in scholarly publications on genetics and bioethics. Among his surviving siblings are Francis B. Cassidy, Jr., of Uxbridge, Mass., Edward R. Cassidy of Worcester, Mass., Mary A. Cassidy of Whitinsville, Mass., Margaret Manship of Gloucester, Mass., and Clare T. Condon of Harrisville, R.I. His body will be received into the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary in the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas at Providence College at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 30. The wake will continue 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 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 31, after which he will be laid to rest in the Dominican Friars' Cemetery on the PC Campus. Donations in this memory may be made to Providence College, c/o Office of Institutional Advancement for the National Alumni Association Scholarship Fund, 1 Cunningham Square, Providence, R.I. 02918. Arrangements by Russell J. Boyle and Son, 331 Smith St., Providence.