Obituary: Father Joseph Doran, S.D.B. (1928-2021)
Father Joseph L. Doran, S.D.B., a professed Salesian of Don Bosco for over 64 years and a priest for over 54 years, died of Covid-19 on March 2, at the Joe Raso Hospice Residence in New City, N.Y. A member of the Salesian community at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw, N.Y., he was 92 years old.
Father Doran was the youngest of the five children of William and Ethel Marie Doran. He was born on Aug. 27, 1928, in Jamestown, Pa. The family were dairy farmers. After his parents’ deaths, Joe left dairy farming in January 1955 to pursue the priestly vocation in a religious order. He was attracted to the Salesians because of their work in education.
He was accepted at Don Bosco College in Newton, N.J., on Jan. 31, 1955, and on Sept. 7 that year entered the novitiate in Newton. A year later, on Sept. 8, 1956, he made his first profession of religious vows. Three years later he graduated from Don Bosco College with a B.A. in philosophy. On Aug. 25, 1962, he made his perpetual vows, also at the college. He studied theology in Italy (1962-1966) and was ordained there on June 29, 1966.
In 1977 Father Doran completed an M.A. in theology at Villanova University in Philadelphia, to which he added an MTS in theology from the John Paul II Institute in Washington in 1993.
Father Doran spent the first 17 years of his Salesian ministry as a math, general science, and religion teacher, especially at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey (1969-1980). He also taught at Salesian schools in New York, Florida, and Indiana. He found teaching “a very work-filled and rewarding ministry.”
Dr. James Scanlon, a former principal of Don Bosco Prep, described Father Doran as “the consummate Algebra 2 and Trig teacher—kind, caring, attentive both in and out of the classroom … appreciated and respected by our boys and a valued collaborator among faculty and staff.”
During those teaching years, he enjoyed doing weekend parish ministry, especially at St. Leo the Great Church in Lincroft, N.J.
After leaving Don Bosco Prep, Father Doran engaged in parish ministry in Salesian parishes in Paterson, N.J. (1980-1989) and Alabama and as a missionary on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera.
Father Doran also undertook retreat house ministry in Ipswich, Mass. (1990-1991 and 1995-1999). For 18 years (1999-2017) he was chaplain for the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate at their motherhouse, Marycrest, in Monroe, N.Y. The Parish Visitors very much appreciated his service and in 2015 honored him with their Mother Mary Teresa Tallon Award (commemorating their foundress) for his years as “the bearer of God’s merciful love to us and to many others outside of our Community in the local parishes and hospitals, … serving as our confessor and ministering to our Sisters who are ill, as well as to those whom God has called to their eternal reward.”
Father Doran was assigned in 2017—by then 89 years old—to the Salesian Boys & Girls Club in East Boston to help with sacramental ministry. In 2018 he retired to the Salesians’ assisted living home at the Marian Shrine in Haverstraw. But even in this retirement, he continued to offer his priestly services until the pandemic led to the suspension of Shrine activities.
