1918 – 1954 (November 8)
William Edward Devine, son of Joseph Devine and Margaret Cunningham, was born in Methuen, Massachusetts on September 26, 1918. Following his early education, he entered Augustinian Academy on Staten Island, New York, in 1932, and became a novice at Our Mother of Good Counsel Novitiate, in New Hamburg, N.Y., in 1936. He professed simple vows on September 10, 1937 and solemn vows on September 10, 1941. After completing his studies at Saint Mary's Hall at Villanova, Pennsylvania, and the Augustinian College in Washington, DC, he was ordained to the priesthood in Trinity College Chapel in Washington on May 18, 1944. He received his M.A. in Political Science from The Catholic University of America the following year.
After ordination, Father Devine taught at Malvern Preparatory School, Malvern, Pa. from 1945 until 1951. He then spent one academic year at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, DC, before returning in 1952 to Malvern. In 1947 he wrote to the Prior Provincial volunteering to serve as a missionary in either China or the Philippine Islands.
Father Devine died after a bout with cancer, in Bryn Mawr Hospital on November 8, 1954 at the age of 36. Among his surviving family members were his mother, three brothers and a sister. Following his Requiem Mass at St. Mary’s Church in Lawrence, he was buried in his family’s plot at Saint Mary's Cemetery in Lawrence, Mass.
