The Right Revd. Mgr. W.J. Convery  V.F.

It was with dismay we learnt of the unexpected death in August, 1937, of this humble saintly  priest.   We had the pleasure of welcoming him back to the Alma Mater in the previous June.  Like the eagle, he came to renew his youth, not in a mere resurrection of memories of happy hours spent in All Hallows, but in the stirring up of the grace that was given to him in ordination here on June 24th, 1889. Knowing the value of a retreat, he came to the peace of college for his last retreat. We little knew it was to be his last retreat, but he seems to have known it himself. I met him on the morning he came from his solitude and I thanked him for giving us all such good example, expressing at the same time the hope that he might be spared to edify us again in a similar way.  " It is easy, Father," he said to me, " to be earnest when death is near. I fear I shall not make another retreat."

On ordination day, after the presentation of the prizes, the President invited him to speak to the students. He did so, simply, directly and with undeniable sincerity, emphasising the importance of zeal, and the danger of forgetting the dignity of the priesthood. The young priest, he said, should put duty and priestly work before all else. He might well have offered us his own life as his teaching in practice. Kindliness, humility, love for the things of God characterised him.

He was born at Lavey, Co. Derry, in 1863, of parents who were, as he said himself, far more rich in faith and spiritual things than in this world's goods. At the end of his course in St. Malachy's College, Belfast, he came to All Hallows, where he was ordained for the Archdiocese of Dubuque. In 1912 he became parish priest of Charles City, Iowa, a charge which he retained until his death. Vir simplex, et rectos, et timens Deum.

Page 94 All Hallows Annual 1938- 1939