1928 – 2015 (May 10)
Edward Edmund Doran was born on July 7, 1928, in Pittston, Pennsylvania, one of two children of Edmund C. Doran and Alice Whalen. His one sibling became a member of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Scranton and was known as Sister Mary Peter. Edward was baptized on July 15, 1928, at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Pittston, and attended both the parish elementary and high school from 1934 to 1946. In 1950 he was admitted to Augustinian Academy, Staten Island, New York as a postulant, and was received as a novice of the Order on September 8, 1951. After completing a year at Good Counsel Novitiate in New Hamburg, New York, he professed first vows on September 10, 1952. Edward then attended Villanova University from 1952 until 1956, and was awarded a BA in Philosophy. He pursued theological studies at Augustinian College, Washington, DC, from 1956 to 1959, and did some graduate work at Catholic University as well. He professed solemn vows on September 10, 1956. He was assigned to St. Joseph Friary and Monsignor Bonner High School, Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania as a member of the faculty from 1959 to 1961. He was ordained to the priesthood on February 4, 1961, at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, by Bishop Phillip Hannan.
Following ordination, Father Doran returned to Monsignor Bonner High School where he taught from 1961 to 1978. For a period of time he served also as disciplinarian. In 1978 he was released for parish ministry in the Diocese of Scranton, and in 1982 was assigned to St. Nicholas of Tolentine High School, Bronx, New York. In 1984, he returned to the Scranton Diocese where he was, for several years, a member of the faculty at Bishop Hoban High School in Wilkes-Barre, and then, from 1991, Assistant Pastor at St. Aloysius Parish, also in Wilkes-Barre. In October, 1994, he returned to the Province and was assigned to St. Nicholas of Tolentine Parish, Philadelphia, as associate pastor, and in 1998 was transferred to St. Rita Parish, also in Philadelphia. In his various parish assignments, Father Doran was especially known for his generous ministry to the sick and homebound, and for his preparation and conscientious delivery as a preacher. In his retirement years he compiled a collection of his homilies which he distributed to friends and former parishioners.
Father Doran was assigned to the Villanova Monastery in October, 2008, in declining health. He died peacefully in the monastery on Sunday morning, May 10, 2015. A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated in the Chapel of St. Thomas of Villanova Monastery on Friday, May 15, 2015, by Prior Provincial Michael Di Gregorio. Father Doran is buried in the Augustinian plot at Calvary Cemetery, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
