ST. BONAVENTURE — Father Dan Riley, OFM, founder and animator of Mt. Irenaeus and one of the most beloved friars in the history of St. Bonaventure University, passed away Wednesday, July 24, 2024. He was 81 years old.
A professed Franciscan friar for 58 years and a priest for 53 years, Father Riley was a 1964 graduate of St. Bonaventure. Aside from two provincial assignments in the mid-1970s, his career since 1971 was spent at the university.
“In my two years at St. Bonaventure, I have been overwhelmed with so many stories about the impact that Father Dan had on so many students and members of our community. His boundless passion for life, his ability to see the good in everything, was something I’ll always admire,” said Dr. Jeff Gingerich, university president.
For more than 50 years, Father Riley’s words, actions and legendary laugh left an indelible mark on the lives of thousands of Bonaventure students. His profound impact was formally recognized in 2023 when he – Bill Riley, as his family and 1964 classmates knew him – received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater at the commencement ceremony.
“I’m so grateful we were able to honor him at our commencement in 2023 with an honorary degree, an award he so richly deserved,” Gingerich said.
Mike Fenn, class of ’91 and executive director of Mt. Irenaeus, echoed the sentiments of more than 750 alumni and friends who commented on Father Riley’s passing on the university’s social media channels since 9 p.m. Wednesday.
“I know there are hundreds, maybe thousands of alums out there with a similar story,” Fenn said. “I showed up on this campus as a freshman, and there was Father Dan, greeting me with a huge smile and a warm welcome. And he never let go. Through the ups and downs of being a college student, a spouse, a parent, every stage of my life, he was there supporting me. And I know I’m not alone. How blessed we all are to have known him.”
Kathy Colucci, ’77, graduated from Bonaventure three years after Father Riley had left the university for other provincial work. She only came to know him well when he was chaplain for the National Alumni Association Board.
When Colucci’s husband, Tom, passed away in 2018 after a long battle with cancer, she asked Father Riley if he would be willing to travel to Cape Cod to officiate Tom’s service. After hesitating for a moment, he agreed. Only later did she learn that Father Riely had postponed his throat surgery to accommodate her wishes.
“I think this was said at commencement last year, that everyone felt Father Dan was their personal priest,” said Colucci, a university trustee from 2011 to 2020 and chair of the Mt. Irenaeus board of trustees. “He gave of himself extravagantly. He embodied everything that St. Francis wanted us to be.”
A native of the Rochester suburb of Charlotte, Father Riley came to St. Bonaventure in 1960 with aspirations of being a doctor, but influenced by friars like Irenaeus Herscher and Gervase White, he changed his major to philosophy his sophomore year.
He furthered his education at The Catholic University of America and Washington Theological Union, and served as co-chair of the task force of religious for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
In his first stint at Bonaventure (1971-1974), Father Riley collaborated with other friars to invigorate campus ministries.
They began taking students on retreats to an old farmhouse that once served as a rectory. The retreats were the seedling that would grow into Mt. Irenaeus a decade later.
Father Riley worked with Father John O’Connor, OFM, to oversee the conversion of the old maintenance building on campus into the Thomas Merton Ministry Center, and worked with students to find a home for Olean’s first Warming House in 1974. The student-run soup kitchen is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
“The news yesterday felt very much like losing a member of my family. We’ve been friends for more than 50 years,” said Father O’Connor, former provincial minister of Holy Name Province and now guardian of the friary at St. Bonaventure.
“Dan was larger than life. His presence would light up any room he walked in and he had that fantastic laugh. I used to tell him, “Dan, you could talk to a wall and it would talk back.’”
Father Riley left SBU in 1974 to co-found, with other friars, an urban house of prayer in east Boston doing street ministry and then became director of Vocation Ministry for Holy Name Province from 1975-1978.
Father Charlie Finnegan, OFM, then provincial minister of Holy Name Province, asked Fr. Dan to return to St. Bonaventure in 1978, but “to take with him this time his dreams for doing regional vocation ministry.” He agreed.
In a life committed to building community, and armed with a promise from his province to grow his regional ministry, Father Riley revitalized the dream of a retreat center for contemplation and reflection. A mountain advisory board made up of campus and civic leaders was formed in 1981.
In 1984, the mountain’s board of directors purchased 204 acres in rural Allegany County, 20 miles from campus, to establish Mt. Irenaeus. The project culminated with the dedications of Holy Peace Chapel in 1990 and the Mountain’s signature House of Peace in 1995.
“He loved St. Bonaventure so much that he wanted the university to have this retreat center,” Colucci said. “Even when others were telling him it couldn’t happen, he believed. He did the impossible. No barrier was too high for him to overcome.”
Funeral services for Father Riley are currently being planned.