My first memory of Bro. Maurus was when I had just entered the community. I was preparing a liturgy and asked him to do a reading. He was seated and I was standing over him. He looked up at me, saw my age, and said in his commanding voice, "Kneel." I dutifully knelt and then asked my favor -- and he happily did the reading! May he rest in peace. His obituary from the Albany, New York paper is copied below.
ALBANY — Brother Maurus O’Malley, C.S.C. died Sunday, May 9, 2010 at Albany Medical Center where he had been a patient since April 14. He was 94 years old and had been a professed member of the Brothers of Holy Cross for seventy years.
Thomas Edward O’Malley was born on October 13, 1915 in Pittsburgh, Penn. the sixth of the seven children of Peter J. and Bridget (Lowery) O’Malley. The O’Malley family were communicants at Holy Rosary Church. Thomas did his elementary education at the parish grade school and his secondary education at Pittsburgh’s Central Catholic High School. In June of 1938 he received his bachelor of arts degree from Duquesne University.
The following July he entered the Congregation of Holy Cross as a candidate for the brotherhood at Sacred Heart Juniorate in Watertown, WI. He received the habit of the Brothers of Holy Cross on August 15, 1938 at St. Joseph Novitiate in Rolling Prairie, IN. At that time he was given the religious name of Brother Maurus. He made his profession of temporary vows on August 16, 1939. Three years later he pronounced his perpetual vows in Sacred Heart Basilica, Notre Dame, IN.
Brother Maurus pursed his graduate studies at the University of Notre Dame from which he was granted the degree of MS in Ed in 1945. He was awarded a second MS in Ed degree from St. John’s University in Jamaica, NY in 1972.
He devoted most of his active ministerial life to the apostolate of education. His career saw him on the faculty of schools conducted by the Brothers of Holy Cross in Indiana, New York, Delaware and Connecticut.
He was one of the founders of Holy Cross High School in Flushing, Queens and did much to foster the establishment of the school’s Women’s Guild which over the years has done much to encourage and further the education of young men in that New York City area.
From 1957 to 1963 he was the founding Master of Novices at St. Joseph Novitiate in Valatie, NY.
Throughout his life Brother Maurus took pride in his Irish heritage and traveled there to visit relatives several times.
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