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Fr. Peter Carrol Curran, OP
Sturdy blacksmith that he was, Thomas Curran had no problem with ill-tempered or
hard-to-handle horses at his smithery in Canada. But
he was recently widowed and left with the care of three young sons, and he realized the
need for help. He gladly accepted the generous
offer of his sister in Los Angeles to assist. Thus
Carrol, the youngest of the three brothers, began his schooling under the guidance of the
Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose at St. Michael’s School and later under the
Christian Brothers at Cathedral High School in the City of the Angels, where he was later
to fulfill so much of his ministry.
At aged 16, he felt God’s call, and with its
re-opening in 1927, he entered the Province’s Apostolic School in Benicia. He was among the first group of novices with Fr.
Stanislaus McDermott who opened the novitiate at Kentfield in 1931. At his reception of the habit, he received the name
of Br. Peter, which for him was a happy relief. He
did his philosophy at St. Albert’s in Oakland,
and was sent for theology with Fr. Kelly (then Bro. Patrick) to the Angelicum in Rome, the
first American students there since Fr. Reginald Mitchell and Fr. Paul Kevin Meagher. Fr.
Curran was ordained in 1937 and finished his doctorate in 1939, returning to Oakland that
summer. At the House of Studies, he taught
philosophy and also taught at the Sisters’ College in Mission San Jose.
On the death of Fr. John Owens in April of 1947, Fr. Curran was appointed Prior at St.
Albert’s. This was the first of his many
offices as superior, often to his chagrin. In
1949, he went to Kentfield and began his years as professor at Dominican College, where he
was very much esteemed and loved by the College and its alumnae. He later became Prior of the novitiate, and in 1958
he went, as an exchange for Fr. Victor White to the English Province for a year where he
preached and lectured. On his return to
California, he was sent to St. Peter Martyr in Los Angeles, where he taught at St.
Mary’s College and was also superior of the high school community at St. John
Vianney, later Daniel Murphy High School. When
the house became a Priory in 1963, he was made the first Prior.
In 1969, he went to Tempe and was with the group who began our Newman Center there. It was a type of work and in an area he
particularly liked. However, the Provincial,
then Fr. Paul Scanlon, asked him to become Provincial Socius in 1971, and good religious
that he was, he accepted. He returned to
Arizona in 1973, but was recalled to Provincial administration in 1977. Under the Provincialates of both Fr. Thomas Raftery
and Fr. Stephen McCabe, he served as superior of Siena House and Provincial Director of
Vocations.
Fr. Curran had the happy facility of working well with people of all ages and ethnic
backgrounds, and had no trouble with any generation gap, as, in his youth, he had no
trouble with any nationality gap. He was a man
for detail (famous for his signs and notices!), and was dedicated to his vocation as a son
of St. Dominic in the Province of the Holy Name: his love for the Order was not just in
theory! God granted him the grace to die as he
lived, working for the glory of the Holy Name of Jesus.
He died on October 27, 1982, aged 71, after a short struggle with cancer, and was
buried from the chapel of St. Albert’s Priory on November 2. May he inspire all of us with his love of the
priesthood and the Order, and may he continue to encourage vocations to the Province and
the Order!
--Fr. Patrick Kelly, O.P. |
