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Father Denis Kelleher, S.D.B., who served in Manhattan and at the Marian Shrine in Stony Point, died Oct. 31 at the Jeanne Jugan Residence in the Bronx. He was 84. He did retreat, vocation, chaplaincy and parish work at the Marian Shrine, 1971-1973 and 1987-1993, and was a parochial vicar at Mary Help of Christians parish in Manhattan, 1996-2000. Father James Heuser, S.D.B., provincial of the Salesians' Eastern Province, based in New Rochelle, said Father Kelleher was "always the priest...fond of preaching and administering the sacraments, and always ready to fill in at parishes when pastors went on vacation." Even in his failing health of the last two years, "he was always ready to be brought from the nursing home to Salesian High School for school Masses and penance services." Born in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland, he entered the Salesians' novitiate in England in 1941 and professed first vows in 1942. He was ordained in 1952. He served in England until 1970 when he came to the United States, where some of his family already lived. A Funeral Mass was offered Nov. 4 in the chapel of Salesian High School, New Rochelle, with burial in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
