Rev. P. F. Cusick Dies

Rev. P. F. Cusick Dies in New York Hospital

Minooka Native

He Served in Jesuit Order Thirty Years

Funeral Will Take Place on Thursday

Rev. Peter F. Cusick, S.J., a priest of the Jesuit Order for the past thirty years and native of Minooka, died early this morning in St. Francis Hospital, New York City, where he had been a medical patient since Friday afternoon.

Stricken with a heart attack while giving a retreat at St. Ignatius Loyola Church Park Avenue and Eighty-Fourth Street, New York, Father Cusick was rushed to the hospital. His brother, M.G. Cusick, his sister, Mrs. Thomas J. Grogan, and niece, Miss Celestine Grogan, all of Minooka, spent a few hours at his bedside Sunday.

The funeral of Father Cusick will take place Thursday morning from St. Ignatius Loyola Church. Burial will be in the Jesuit cemetery at St. Andrew’s-on-the-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Friends may view the body in the church up to the time for the funeral mass.

Had Father Cusick lived until next June 28, he would have observed his sixty-fourth birthday anniversary. His parents, the late Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Cusick, were among the early settlers of Minooka. As a youth, Father Cusick worked in the mines. His early education was received in the Minooka public school under the supervision of the late Prof. Thomas Joyce. Later he attended St. Thomas’ College, then under the direction of priests of the diocese. After finishing his studies at St. Thomas’ College, in preparation for the priesthood, he entered Holy Cross College, Worchester, Mass., and after a four-year course, there went to Innsbrook, Austria, where after several years of study, he was ordained as a priest of the Jesuit Order.

First Mass in Minooka

Upon returning to the states after his ordination, Father Cusick read his first mass in St. Joseph’s Church, Minooka, and shortly after, was assigned to teaching in Jesuit colleges, his first assignment being to the Mother House, Frederick, Md. For nine years, he was pastor of the Shrine at Auriesville, N.Y. In April, 1938, less than a year ago, he was given charge of St. Ignatius Loyola Church, New York City. While on a short visit to his home in Minooka a few weeks ago, Father Cusick expressed himself as pleased with his new assignment.

Father Cusick, while attending St. Thomas’ College, now the University of Scranton, more than forty years ago, served as Minooka correspondent of The Times. During his school days in Scranton, he was instrumental in organizing O’Connell Council, Y.M.I. in Minooka, of which he was a charter member. In those days Minooka boys, as a rule, went to work in the mines or breaker at eleven years of age. Father Cusick and the late Martin H. McDonough, Jr., a graduate of Scranton Business College, taught night school gratis in the Y.M.I. rooms to more than fifty young men then employed in the mines.

Aided Many Families

Father Cusick, as school student or priest of God, was never too busy to give a helping hand to any of his acquaintances or to any one in distress. The good deeds performed by father Cusick will long be remembered by the many families in Minooka and by hundreds in the various Jesuit churches where he served during his thirty years as a priest.

Surviving Father Cusick are his brother, M.G. Cusick, three sisters, Mrs. Thomas J. Grogan, Mrs. Mary Higgins, all of Minooka, and Mrs. Ann Hughes of Buffalo, N.Y. and several nieces and nephews.

Contributed by Maria Montoro Edwards