The Basilian Newsletter
		Number Four 				March 14, 1980.

EDMUND JOSEPH MCCORKELL
 1891 - 1980

	Father Edmund McCorkell died at 1:15 A.M., Sunday morning, March 9, 1980, at St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, the result of a cardiac arrest.  The body was waked at the University of St. Michael's College Chapel beginning that same evening.  Father Donal 0'Gorman, C.S .B., the local superior, led a Prayer Service Monday evening, March 10, 1980, at 8:00 P.M.

	On Tuesday evening, March 11, 1980, at 8:00 P.M., a concelebrated Mass of Christian Burial was offered in St. Basil's Church.  The Principal Celebrant and Homilist was Father James Hanrahan, C.S B.   The Final Commendation was given by His Excellency Aloysius M. Ambrozic, Auxiliary Bishop of Toronto.   Their Excellencies M. Pierce Lacey and Leonard J  Wall, Auxiliary Bishops of Toronto, were present.  The burial took place in the Basilian plot at Holy Cross Cemetery, Thornhill, Ontario, with Father Edward McLean, C.S.B., officiating.  Confreres are reminded of the usual suffrages for the repose of his soul.

	Edmund J. McCorkell was born on the family farm in the Township of Mara, near Brechin, Ontario, on January 4, 1891, one of ten children of Joseph McCorkell and Mary O'Donnell.  He was baptized in St. Andrew's Church, Brechin, on February 1, 1891.  Having completed his studies at the local public school, he became, in the fall of 1904, the first person in the 

area to enter High School.  He attended the Orillia Collegiate Institute until 1907.  He then moved to Toronto and enrolled in the Faculty of Education where he obtained a Teachers certificate.  He then, through the encouragement of Father Nicholas Roche, C.S.B., accepted an invitation to teach in the High School department of St. Michael1s College and concurrently pursue his studies toward a University degree.  He received his B.A. degree in 1911 with the first class graduated by St. Michael's College in its federation in the University of Toronto.  He then entered St. Basil's Novitiate, Toronto, where he was first professed on August 15, 1912.  Others making their Novitiate that year included Henry S. Bellisle, Paul Costello, Charles E. Coughlin; John J. Sheridan and Joseph B. Walsh, all of whom have predeceased him.

	For the next three years 1913-1916, he studied theology in the Scholasticate in Toronto and Windsor, returning to Toronto where he was ordained to the priesthood at St. Basil's Church on June 29, 1916, by Archbishop Neil McNeil.  Others ordained that year included Charles E. Coughlin and Thomas P. O'Rourke, both of whom are deceased.

	Following ordination, Father McCorkell began his graduate studies at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., in Theology and Philosophy, earning an M.A. degree in 1917.  He returned to St. Michael1s College where he remained until 1931.  During those years he was a lecturer in English.   In 1922, he became Professor of English as well as Registrar.  He retained the position of Registrar until 1925.  He then became Superior and President from 1925-1931 and 1934-1940. 

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The intervening years 1931-1934 were spent in St. Basil's Novitiate as Master of Novices.  During 1940-1941, he taught at Assumption College.   In the Spring of 1941 he was awarded an L.L.D.  (honoris causa) from the University of Ottawa.  In August of the same year, he was appointed Superior and Principal of St. Thomas More College, Saskatoon.
	In the summer of 1942, the General Chapter was convened in Toronto and elected Father McCorkell Superior General.  During the ensuing years, burgeoning ones for our Congregation, he held the reigns in a dynamic and imaginative fashion.  He became a true father.

	In 1954, when his term of office came to an end, he returned to the ranks to serve as a professor of English at St. John Fisher College, Rochester.  The following year he was appointed President of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, an office he held until 1961.  In that year he became the Superior of the Basilian community at Assumption University.   In 1964, he retired to St. John Fisher College where he did a little teaching and became the Special Assistant to the President.  He returned to Toronto and the University of St. Michael's College in August 1969.  He spent his time writing and in research scholarship.  He published a biography of Father Henry Carr, a family history and a volume of Memoirs.

	In 1972, the Canadian government named him an Officer of the Order of Canada.   In 1977, the University of St  Michael's College bestowed on him the degree of D.S.L.  (honoris causa).

	On Saturday, March 8, 1980, having experienced a weak spell after the evening meal, he was taken to St. Michael's Hospital, shortly after midnight he died.

	It seems but fitting, to this writer at least, to ponder the words of Shakespeare:

						"The cess of majesty
			Dies not alone, but like a whirlpool doth draw
			What's near it with it; or 'tis a massive wheel
			Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
			To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
			Are mortised and adjoined, which when it falls,
			Each small annexment, petty consequence,
			Attends the bois'trous ruin."
		Shakespeare, Hamlet III, iii

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Each of us has had an attachment of some sort or other to Father McCorkell, and with his death, we all are affected by it, we are all caught up in it.  We are all a little less for it.

But as the tumult of death subsides, we begin to recall the man.  A man who with all his honours, titles and positions, was ever humble.  A man who loved family, both personal and religious.  A man who was an accomplished teacher, who taught by word and deed.  A man whose spiritual life was no mere appendage, but the very warp and woof of his being.  A man whose priest-hood included the daily total giving of self.  A man who was firm but ever kind, a happy wanderer.  A man who was always approachable by young and old alike. A man who had continual rapport with peoples of all walks of life.  A man treasured by all Basilians, even by the newest Associate.  A man who grew old gracefully and peacefully, ready to meet his God.

His life was gentle,
	and the elements
					So mixed in him
			that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world
"This was a man."
					Shakespeare, Julius Caesar v,5

The Basilians Fathers, while themselves mourning their brother and fellow priest, extend their sympathy and a promise of prayers to his many relatives and devoted friends.

R. I. P.