1928 – 2012 (December 3)
John Francis Lipp was born on August 18, 1928, in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, one of two sons and three daughters of John J. Lipp and Barbara E. Smith. He was baptized on August 26, 1928, at Saint Fidelis Church, Mahanoy City and attended Saint Fidelis Parish School, and Mahanoy City Public High School. He entered Augustinian Academy, Staten Island, New York, as a postulant in 1946, and was received as a novice on September 9, 1947. After a year at Good Counsel Novitiate, New Hamburg, New York, he professed first vows on September 10, 1948. He then attended Villanova College, and received a BA in Philosophy in 1951. He went to Augustinian College, Washington, DC, for theological studies, and at the same time, attended the Catholic University of America and received an MA in German in 1955. He professed solemn vows on September 10, 1951, and was ordained to the priesthood on September 12, 1954, at Saint Mary’s Hall Chapel, Villanova, , by Bishop J. Carroll McCormick.
Father Lipp John was assigned to Saint Nicholas of Tolentine Parish, Jamaica, New York, as a summer assignment in 1955, and then was assigned to teach at Saint John of Sahagun Friary and Archbishop Carroll High School, Washington, DC. From 1963 to 1969, he taught at Austin Preparatory School, Reading, Massachusetts. In 1969 he was assigned to Saint Thomas Monastery and was appointed Assistant Director of Admissions for Villanova University, where he remained until 1979. After a brief assignment to Assumption/Saint Paul Parish, Mechanicville, New York, in 1979, he returned to Austin Preparatory School, as a teacher, until 1983. From 1983 to 1985, he served as associate pastor at Saint Nicholas of Tolentine Parish, Atlantic City, New Jersey, and from 1985 to 1992, he served as associate pastor at Saint Rita of Cascia Parish, Philadelphia. In 1992 Father Lipp returned to Saint Thomas Monastery and served as chaplain, first at Sacred Heart Hospital, Norristown, Pennsylvania and then at Haverford State Hospital, Haverford, Pennsylvania.
In his retirement, Father Lipp continued to reside at St. Thomas of Villanova Monastery. He died in Bryn Mawr Hospital on December 3, 2012.
A funeral Mass was said on Monday morning, December 10, 2012 in the Chapel of the St. Thomas of Villanova Monastery, Villanova, Pa. Fr. Mickey Genovese, O.S.A., Prior Provincial, was the celebrant and Fr. Harry J. Erdlen, O.S.A., gave the homily. Fr. Lipp is buried in the Augustinian plot at Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
