1909 – 1968 (October 20)
William Gerard Cullen was born in Annapolis, Maryland, on June 3, 1909, to James Cullen and Cecilia Mullen. Because his father was in the United States Navy his early years were marked by a great deal of travel. Thus it was that Father Cullen entered the Order from San Diego, California. He was received into the novitiate on September 8, 1927, and made his simple profession on September 9, 1928, at Good Counsel Novitiate, New Hamburg, New York. He completed his studies at Villanova in June of 1932 and began his theological studies in Washington, D.C., at Augustinian College. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop James H. Ryan at the National Shrine on June 11, 1935.
Father Cullen first was assigned to Malvern Preparatory School. After seven years there, he was transferred, in 1943, to Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai, California. The following year he was transferred to Saint Rita High School in Chicago. In 1947 Father Cullen was made a member of the first faculty of Merrimack College, North Andover, Massachusetts, and remained there until 1960. He then ministered for one year in California, and in 1961 began a six year term with the physics department at Villanova University. From 1967 until the Chapter of 1968 he was an associate at Saint Nicholas of Tolentine Parish, Jamaica, N.Y. In 1968 he was assigned as associate pastor at Our Mother of Good Counsel on Staten Island by the Provincial Chapter.
It was at Good Counsel parish, on October 20, 1968, that Father Cullen died suddenly of a heart attack. He was buried in the Province cemetery at Saint Mary's Hall. His body was later transferred with those of other friars to Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken, Pa.
