Father John C. McGuire

Father John C. McGuire, pastor emeritus of St. Colman’s parish in East Kingston, died March 23 at De LaSalle Hall in Lincroft, N.J., where he resided for the last two years. He was 86.

He served at St. Colman’s for 15 years, as pastor from 1995 until January 2002, and as administrator from 1986 to 1995.

Father McGuire also served on the faculty of Colman Catholic High School in Kingston, 1986-1999.

Before his ordination to the priesthood in 1979, he was a De LaSalle Christian Brother for 30 years.

As a Christian Brother, he served for 28 years at the brothers’ Lincoln Hall School in Lincolndale. He also taught at St. Jerome’s School, the Bronx, and Incarnation School, Manhattan.

Archbishop Dolan offered the Funeral Mass on March 31 at St. Colman’s. Father Eugene Grohe, C.Ss.R., administrator of Sacred Heart parish in Esopus, gave the homily.

“Father Jack McGuire was a good priest,” Father Grohe said. “He was full of life, liked to tell jokes and tease in a pleasant manner.

“He had the knack of knowing when you were down in the dumps—he had a way of making you forget and had you laughing before you left his presence,” he said. “When you came to Mass on Sunday, he made you feel you belonged, and assured you of his concern when you left the Church.”

Father James E. Borstelmann, the current administrator of St. Colman’s, said, “He knew everybody in the parish by name. He had a great smile, a great sense of humor.”

The Christian Brothers said in a statement that they were “delighted to have him back with them at De La Salle Hall where he spent the final two years of his life,” and they extended “sincere sympathy to the Archdiocese of New York, to Father’s family, parishioners, and friends.”

Born in Manhattan, he attended the Christian Brothers’ junior seminary in Barrytown as a high school student. After earning a bachelor’s degree in history at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., he professed final vows as a Christian Brother in 1949, receiving the name Brother Anthony Edward. He later earned a master’s in history at Manhattan College and a master’s in social work at the University of Connecticut.

He taught at St. Jerome’s from 1947 to 1952 and at Incarnation School, 1955-1956.

At Lincoln Hall, where he was first a cottage supervisor and then a group home administrator, he served from 1952 to 1955 and then from 1956 to 1974.

He studied for the priesthood at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, and received his first assignment as parochial vicar at Our Lady Queen of Peace parish, Staten Island, where he served until his assignment to St. Colman’s in 1986.

In retirement he served as a weekend assistant at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Highlands, N.J., until April 2009.

Burial was in St. Raymond’s Cemetery, the Bronx.