TURNER, WILLIAM

Sixth bishop of Buffalo, N.Y., educator, author; b. Killmalloch, County Limerick, Ireland, April 8, 1871; d. Buffalo, July 10, 1936. He attended national schools and the Jesuit college at Mungret, Limerick. In 1888, he received his B.A. from the Royal University of Ireland, and the S.T.D. in 1893 from the North American College in Rome, winning the Benemerenti medal of the Roman Academy of St. Thomas for proficiency in philosophy. He was ordained in Rome at 22 for the Diocese of St. Augustine, Fla., on Aug. 13, 1893. His services were obtained by Abp. John Ireland of St. Paul, Minn., who installed him in his archdiocesan seminary in 1895 as chairman of the philosophy department. After further studies in Europe, he was appointed in 1906 to the chair of philosophy at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., also serving as librarian. Two widely used textbooks issued from his classroom experience: History of Philosophy (1903), the first English textbook with a Catholic orientation on that subject, and Lessons in Logic (1911). He also wrote articles for the Catholic Mind and other publications, edited the American Ecclesiastical Review from 1914 to 1919, and was associate editor of the Catholic Historical Review from 1915 to 1918.

On March 10, 1919, he was chosen to succeed Bp. (later Cardinal) Dennis J. Dougherty as bishop of Buffalo. He was consecrated by Cardinal James Gibbons on March 29 and installed by Abp. (later Cardinal) Patrick Hayes on April 9. During his episcopacy he ordained 173 priests, created 30 new parishes, and was especially zealous in developing social services in his see. In 1923, he combined various charitable institutions, organizing the diocesan Catholic charities, which had raised several million dollars for the indigent by the time of his death. St. Vincent de Paul Society conferences were founded in all large parishes, as were numerous health facilities for undernourished children among his charges. He was honored in 1934 by the Italian government for his work among Italians in the U.S.

Bibliography: t. a. donohue, History: Diocese of Buffalo (Buffalo 1930). "Death of Bishop Turner of Buffalo," Catholic World 143 (Aug. 1936) 619–620. c. barry, The Catholic University of America, 1903–1909: The Rectorship of Denis J. O'Connell (Washington 1949).

[i. f. mogavero]