1897 – 1968 (September 17)
Eugene A. Mauch was born in Philadelphia on October 22, 1897, the son of Jacob Mauch and Catherine Kueney. He received his primary education in Saint Francis de Sales Parochial School and attended Roman Catholic High School. After graduation, he was employed as a bookkeeper and spent a year and a half in the Navy after the close of World War I. He entered the Order at Corr Hall on the Villanova campus on February 2, 1921, and following his novitiate, made profession of simple vows on February 19, 1922. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Church of Saint Thomas of Villanova on August 29, 1926, by Denis Cardinal Dougherty, and spent the year after ordination in Washington, DC, where he was awarded an M.A. at the Catholic University of America.
The following year Father Mauch was assigned to Villanova College and later served for a short period as Dean of the School of Arts. In 1935, when the Province was invited to conduct a high school at Amarillo, Texas, he was sent to study the possibility and spent two years there before advising the Prior Provincial not to accept it. In July 1937, Father Mauch was appointed Rector of Saint Augustine’s School in San Diego, California, and the following February he was named superior of the Augustinian community there.
Father Mauch took ill while in California and was forced to resign his position in July 1940 and return east. He was assigned to parish work in Greenwich, New York, for a short time, and having regained his health, was assigned in June 1942 to Our Mother of Good Counsel Parish, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. During this period he served as chaplain to Bryn Mawr Hospital and spiritual advisor to the Catholic nurses at the Hospital.
In June 1946, Father Mauch was assigned as pastor and prior at Saint Nicholas of Tolentine Parish in the Bronx. It was during his term as pastor that the Gothic-style upper church was completed and dedicated by Francis Cardinal Spellman.
Father Mauch was transferred as pastor to Saint Augustine’s Church in Troy, New York, in June 1953. Three years later he was named pastor of the Church of Saint Denis in Havertown, Pennsylvania. Here he was instrumental in enlarging the parochial school and directed the construction of the new chapel to accommodate the needs of his people.
In 1962, Father Mauch was assigned as pastor of Saint Genevieve Parish in Flourtown, Pennsylvania. It was here that his health began to fail again, and after two years he resigned as pastor and was reassigned as an associate at Our Mother of Consolation Parish, Chestnut Hill. His condition gradually worsened and, in November 1967, he retired to the Villanova Monastery. Early in 1968 he was taken to Bryn Mawr Hospital, then briefly at Rosemont Manor Nursing Home until his death. He passed away early Tuesday morning, September 17, 1968. Internment in the Community Cemetery followed immediately after the Funeral Mass in Saint Mary’s Hall Chapel.
