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Father Patrick Diver, S.D.B.
(1943-2011)
By Father Michael Mendl, S.D.B.
After a long bout with cancer, Father Patrick Diver, S.D.B., died
early in the morning of August 6, 2011, at Father Hudson House, a
hospice in Elizabeth, N.J. He was 68.
Father Diver was born in Boston on August 5, 1943,
to Patrick and Mary Connolly Diver.
Within the month he was baptized at St. Margaret’s Church in
Dorchester, which remained the
family’s parish. Following his graduation from Don Bosco Technical
High School in Boston in 1961, Patrick enrolled in Don Bosco College
Seminary in Newton, N.J., as a candidate for Salesian life. In
August 1962 he entered the novitiate, also in Newton, and made his
first profession of religious vows on August 16, 1963.
Like all Salesian seminarians, Brother Diver majored
in philosophy at Don Bosco College, graduating with a bachelor’s
degree in June 1967. He minored in classical languages.
Having volunteered for the foreign missions, Brother
Diver was sent to the Philippines, where he taught at Don
Bosco Academy in Pampanga, the province’s high school seminary, from
1967 to 1970. The students greatly appreciated him as a teacher and
friend. At the same time he undertook a master’s program in
guidance and counseling at De La Salle College’s Graduate School of
Education in Manila, completing his degree in May 1970. One of the
papers that he presented for the
degree was titled “The Counselor in the Salesian System of
Education.”
Brother Diver returned to the U.S. in 1970 to study
theology at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio.
He was ordained in Columbus on March 30, 1974, and awarded a master
of arts in theology from the Josephinum in June of that year.
Father Diver’s first priestly assignment as dean of
students at Don Bosco College in Newton (1974-1976). Twenty-one
years of high school apostolate followed, during which he ministered
as a guidance counselor at St. Dominic Savio High School in East
Boston (1976-1980),
treasurer at Dom Savio (1980-1984), and director of the school
(1989-1995); he was treasurer at Mary Help of Christians
School in Tampa (1984-1988) and then principal there (1988-1989),
and guidance counselor at Don Bosco Technical High School in
Paterson, N.J. (1995-1997). He later had another short stint as
guidance counselor at Savio Prep in East Boston (2003-2004).
Father Diver made a lasting impression on the young
men at Savio. One alumnus, C. David Surface, writes: “He was
the most honest and caring priest I have ever known. His influence
helped to shape my life both professionally and from a family
perspective…. I will never forget him and how he made my days at
Savio truly special.”
During his first assignment in East Boston he was
certified as a school guidance counselor in Massachusetts (1978).
Father Diver worked in parishes, too. He was pastor of Mary Help of
Christians Church in Manhattan for a year (1997-1998), associate
pastor at Nativity Church in Washington, D.C. (2002), acting pastor
of St. Theresa’s Church in Leeds, Ala. (2003), and pastor of St.
Anthony of Padua Church in Elizabeth, N.J., and director of the
Salesian community there (2004-2010).
From 1998 to 2002 Father Diver was director of
Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, coordinating a vast fundraising
program in service to Salesian missionary activities all over the
world.
In 2007, while he was pastor in Elizabeth, Father
Diver was found to have colon cancer and went through a long
treatment and recovery.
In the summer of 2010 Father Diver completed his
pastorate and directorship in Elizabeth and was assigned once
more to the formation of young Salesians as a very experienced and
highly valued staff member at the Don Bosco Residence in Orange,
N.J. Late in the spring of 2011 cancer returned in a very serious
form. When treatment was unavailing, he entered hospice care.
Brother Gustavo Ramirez, S.D.B., one of the young
Salesians from Orange, said of him: “Father Pat Diver was a great
example of perseverance and love for the young. I will always
remember him as the vital man who loved the young to the last minute
of his life.”
Father Diver is survived by his sisters Kathleen
Tubman and Maureen Fitzgerald, both of the Boston area, and by his
Salesian confreres of the New Rochelle Province.
The funeral arrangements for Father Diver are:
Wake at Saint Anthony of Padua Church, 853 Third Avenue, Elizabeth,
N.J., 07202, on Monday, August 8, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. and
on Tuesday, August 9, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Mass of Christian Burial at Saint Anthony’s, August
9 at 7:30 p.m. Father Thomas Dunne, S.D.B., provincial, will
preside, and Father Thomas Ruekert, S.D.B., will preach.
Burial in the Diver family plot at Newton Cemetery,
Newton, Mass., on Wednesday, August 10, at 1:00 p.m.
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