Obituary: Fr. John F. Grinsell, S.D.B. (1942-2021)
Fr. John Francis Grinsell, S.D.B., died early on Friday, March 12, 2021, at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, N.Y., of complications from Covid-19.
Fr. John, 79, was assistant pastor of St. John Bosco Parish and director of mission for the Don Bosco Community Center in Port Chester, N.Y. He was also vice director of the Salesian community in Port Chester. A priest for well over 49 years, he would have reached his golden jubilee of ordination on April 3. He was a professed Salesian for over 59 years.
John was the son of Edward and Theresa Kennedy Grinsell and was born in Brooklyn on March 2, 1942. The family belonged to St. John the Baptist Parish, and John was baptized there on March 15, 1942. He was confirmed in 1953 at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Brooklyn.
John attended high school at Don Bosco Juniorate at Haverstraw, N.Y., and from there, continued into the novitiate in Newton, N.J., in September 1959. He professed his first religious vows on September 8, 1960, at Newton, and his perpetual vows on June 25, 1966, at Mt. Mongola in Ellenville, N.Y. Bro. John, an average student, graduated from Don Bosco College in Newton in 1964 with a B.A. in philosophy.
Bro. John did his practical training as a teacher and assistant at the Salesian aspirantate in Cedar Lake, Ind., 1964 to 1967, then undertook theological studies at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio. He was ordained in Columbus, Ohio, on April 3, 1971.
Bro. John aspired at one time to do graduate work in English, but he wound up pursuing a program in Christian spirituality at Creighton University in Omaha instead. He earned an M.A. there in 1995.
Following his ordination, Fr. John was a congenial and effective teacher, guidance director, local superior at several Salesian schools: Don Bosco Tech in Paterson, N.J. (1971-1980), teaching and doing guidance; Salesian High School in New Rochelle, N.Y., where he was director (1980-1986); Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., also director (1992-1998); LaSalle High School in Miami (1999-2002) as campus minister; and St. Petersburg Catholic High School (2002-2008), doing guidance and serving as director of the Salesian community. His teaching field was religion.
Fr. John was master of novices at St. Joseph’s Novitiate in Newton from 1986 to 1989—the last novices to be trained in Newton. After a sabbatical year in Berkeley, Cal., he returned to formation work with Salesian candidates in South Orange (1990-1992).
The rest of Fr. John’s priestly ministry was carried out in parishes: assistant pastor at Holy Rosary in Port Chester (1998-1999) and St. Kieran in Miami (1999-2002), and pastor of Our Lady of the Valley in Orange, N.J. (2008-2015). In 2015 he came back to Port Chester, first as assistant again at Holy Rosary and director of mission at Don Bosco Community Center, then assistant pastor of St. John Bosco when that parish was formed in 2017 by the merging of the four parishes of Port Chester.
Fr. John was well known for his love of sports, especially basketball, his constant cheerfulness, and his penchant for rhymes and catch-phrases in his preaching. Fr. David Moreno described him as a “good friend to all, a wonderful example of a Salesian priest in the manner of Don Bosco.”
