1905 – 1979 (July 22)
James Joseph McCusker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 21, 1905 to Thomas McCusker and Bridget Maller, and was baptized at Saint Thomas Aquinas Church on May 7, 1905. He attended high school as a postulant at Augustinian Academy on Staten Island, New York, and was received into the novitiate at New Hamburg, N.Y. on September 10, 1929. He made his first profession of vows on September 11, 1930, and his solemn profession on September 11, 1933. After completing his undergraduate education at Villanova in June, 1934, he undertook his theological studies at Augustinian College in Washington, DC. On June 15, 1937 he was ordained to the priesthood at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception by Bishop John M. McNamara.
In 1938 Father McCusker spent his first year of priestly ministry in Havana, Cuba. In 1939 he was assigned as pastoral assistant to Our Mother of Good Counsel Parish, Bryn Mawr, PA. In 1945 he was transferred to Saint Paul’s parish, Mechanicville, N.Y., and the following year to Saint Mary’s parish, Lawrence, MA, where he remained until 1970.
After these long and dedicated years of service in parochial ministry, Father McCusker retired to the Merrimack Monastery in December, 1970. When his failing health required professional nursing care in April, 1978, Father McCusker was transferred to Villa of Divine Providence Nursing Home. He died on July 22, 1979, and is buried at Calvary Cemetery in West Conshohocken, PA.
