August 07, 2015
In Memoriam: Rev. Thomas D. McGonigle, O.P.; served as first director of Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies
Rev. Thomas Declan McGonigle, O.P., a retired professor and administrator who served Providence College for nearly 20 years, died on Aug. 4, 2015, in Chicago, Ill. He was 74.
A member of the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great, based in Chicago, Father McGonigle had returned to the province following his retirement from the PC faculty in 2010. He served as an associate professor of history and a special lecturer in theology.
Among his many contributions to the College, he is likely best remembered as being the founding director of the Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies (CCDS), which opened in Aquinas Hall in September 2006. The center is a place of intellectual exploration and dialogue focused on the richness and diversity of the College’s Catholic and Dominican traditions. The center, under the direction of the Office of Mission and Ministry, sponsors a variety of presentations, events, exhibitions, and other programming open to the College community and the public.
A Dominican for more than 50 years, Father McGonigle was named CCDS director in 2005 by College President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. ’80 and remained in that role until leaving the College in 2010.
Rev. R. Gabriel Pivarnik, O.P., vice president for mission and ministry, who was named CCDS director after Father McGonigle left PC, said that Father McGonigle was a very welcoming individual and wanted the center to have that sense of welcome as one of its hallmarks.
“I hope that in my own work as director that I have been able to continue that legacy,” said Father Pivarnik, who also is an assistant professor of theology.
Father McGonigle came to PC in 1985 as an associate professor of history. He taught for two years before leaving to serve as vice president, academic dean, and associate professor of spirituality at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union from 1987-1993.
A scholar in church history, spirituality
Father McGonigle returned to the College in 1993 and served for the next three years as vice president for academic administration. He taught history and theology for the remainder of his career at PC, in addition to leading the CCDS.
With an academic expertise in church history and spirituality, he taught in the Liberal Arts Honors and Development of Western Civilization programs, as well as in traditional classes. The three courses he enjoyed teaching most, he said several years ago, were History of Modern Spirituality, Medieval Church History, and Reformation Church History.
Shortly before he left the College, Father McGonigle donated his personal library to the CCDS. The volumes numbered in the hundreds and included books on theology, church history, spirituality, and art history — many with Dominican themes and relevance.
Born in Denver, Colo., Father McGonigle attended Catholic schools there through high school and went on to attain a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Aquinas Institute of Philosophy. He subsequently earned master’s degrees in philosophy (Aquinas Institute of Philosophy), in theology (Aquinas Institute of Theology), and in church history (Harvard University), as well as a doctorate in church history (Harvard).
He entered the Dominican Novitiate in 1962 and was ordained a Dominican priest on May 25, 1968, at St. Rose Priory in Dubuque, Iowa.
With the exception of the time he was working on his doctoral degree at Harvard, Father McGonigle taught at the Aquinas Institute of Philosophy from 1970-81, also serving as president of the Aquinas Institute of Theology beginning in 1978. From 1981-85, he was an adjunct professor at the Wartburg Theological Seminary and the University of Dubuque.
As a member of the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great, Father McGonigle served on the Provincial Council and the Intellectual Life Commission, and was the province’s regent of studies.
He also wrote extensively on church and Dominican traditions. He was the co-author of The Dominican Tradition (The Liturgical Press, 2006), and, with Rev. James F. Quigley, O.P. ’60, a former PC associate professor of theology and administrator, he wrote both A History of the Christian Tradition: From Its Jewish Origins to the Reformation (Paulist Press; 1988) and A History of the Christian Tradition: From the Reformation to the Present (Paulist Press, 1996).
Father McGonigle is survived by a half-brother, Paul Coons, and a half-sister, Vicki Coons, as well as his Dominican community.
A Mass of Christian Burial for Father McGonigle was celebrated in St. Vincent Ferrer Church in River Forest, Ill.
Memorial gifts in his name may be made to the Dominican Friars, Central Province, 1910 S. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60608-2904.
