Mahar, Father John
1974, July 4
Date of Birth: 1899, September 7
John Mahar was born in Youngstown, Ohio, then in the Diocese of Cleveland, on September 7, 1899. His elementary education, begun in 1906, was at Immaculate Conception Parish School in Youngstown. From 1915 to 1919 he attended high school and technical school in Youngstown. From 1915 to 1919 he attended high school and technical school in Youngstown. He came to St. Charles College in Catonsville, Maryland, in 1919. Illness forced him to interrupt his studies there in 1921. Before he returned to St. Charles College in 1923, he worked as a fireman on the Pennsylvania Railroad. He graduated from St. Charles in 1926 and entered St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. There he obtained his B.A. in 1928. He was again forced to interrupt his studies in 1928-1929 to go to Detroit for speech-therapy. While in Detroit he worked for both the Chrysler Corporation and for the Detroit Edison Power Company in an engineering capacity. Returning to St. Mary’s he began his Theology. In 1930, for his second year of Theology, he moved to the new St. Mary’s Seminary at Roland Park. There he took over the engineering and design details of the building of our Lady’s Grotto. In 1932, still a seminarian, he joined the faculty of St. Charles College. When, in May 1933, Mass was first offered on the altar of the grotto, he came from St. Charles to act as Master of Ceremonies for the liturgy. He was ordained on June 15, 1933, for the diocese of Cleveland.
For the first year of his priesthood, Father Mahar made his Solitude in Catonsville. After Solitude, he remained in Catonsville at St. Charles College to teach Science and Mathematics from 1934 to 1937. In 1937 he went to The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. to study Physics. After that scholastic year Father Mahar came back to St. Charles College in 1938. He taught Science and Mathematics until, after the amalgamation of St. Charles and the Philosophy Department of St. Mary’s Seminary in 1969 as St. Mary’s Seminary College, he retired to St. Charles Villa, the Sulpician Retirement Home in Catonsville, in 1971. Father Mahar died on July 4, 1974.
Adapted from Father Mahar’s “Personal Data” sheet, from the Voice, and from data supplied by Father John Bowen.