ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., July 25, 2024 — Fr. 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. He was 81 years old.
A professed Franciscan friar for 58 years and a priest for 53 years, Fr. Dan 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 Fr. 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, Fr. Dan’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 Fr. Dan — 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 Fr. Dan’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 Fr. 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 Fr. Dan 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 Fr. Dan 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 Fr. Dan had postponed his throat surgery to accommodate her wishes.
“I think this was said at Commencement last year, that everyone felt Fr. 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 Saint Francis wanted us to be.”
A native of Charlotte, New York, a suburb of Rochester, Fr. Dan 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), Fr. Dan 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.
Fr. Dan worked with Fr. John O’Connor, O.F.M., 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.
Fr. John first worked in ministries with Fr. Dan at a small junior college in Washington, D.C., in the 1960s before joining him at SBU in 1972.
“The news yesterday felt very much like losing a member of my family. We’ve been friends for more than 50 years,” said Fr. John, 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.’”
Fr. Dan 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.
Fr. Charlie Finnegan, O.F.M., 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, Fr. Dan 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.”
Joe Flanagan, ’74, longtime alumni director at St. Bonaventure, traveled with Fr. Dan to many Mountain on the Road events where they shared the Franciscan spirit and tradition with alumni and friends across the country.
Flanagan admitted it was hard to sum up the legacy of a man who cast such a wide spiritual net for nearly 60 years at SBU.
“He was a guy who loved God, loved his family, loved being a friar, and loved St. Bonaventure,” Flanagan said. “He was always there when people needed him.”
He was also known for meeting students and alumni where they were – whether it was a Mass at the Mountain, the student section of the Reilly Center, or on Instagram, where he frequently shared the gospel complemented by his own photography. In a post just a few days ago, Fr. Dan reflected on Merton’s Heart, the spirit of God and the beauty of the surrounding mountains while standing at the foot of the athletic fields.
He wrote: “Many have hiked up this hill, walked into this pasture, sit under the trees here, wondering about their lives and opening them up to the spirit of God and the beauty of the world around them, being drawn out to care for others and finding a way in the world.”
In an interview for the cover story for the summer 2023 edition of Bonaventure magazine, Fr. Dan said he felt blessed by the relationships he developed and nurtured with countless people since coming to St. Bonaventure in 1960.
“It blows me away when they call or text me because I never thought I could make that kind of difference,” he said. “The students have given me so much that I’m barely aware of what I’ve given them. It’s been a gift, to be involved in their lives and to see their sincere desire to come alive and experience God in their own way.”
Details about services for Fr. Dan will be shared when they become available.
