1860 – 1888 (February 13)
William Alexander Carr was born in Greenwich, New York, to Michael Carr and Mary Howard, on July 13, 1860, and was baptized in Holy Cross Church in that city. Following his early schooling, he enrolled at Villanova College in 1878, and graduated with an AB degree in 1880. He entered the novitiate at Villanova in October of that year, and professed simple vows on October 3, 1881, and solemn vows on October 5, 1884. He was ordained in the Philadelphia Cathedral by Archbishop Patrick Ryan on January 11, 1885.
He served for a short time as rector of Saint Denis Parish, Havertown, Pa., from July, 1886, to July, 1887, during which time he purchased nearly 13 acres of land, which eventually became the new section of the parish cemetery.
Tubercular illness forced Father Carr to retire from parish activities. On a visit to his parents in Salem, New York, before leaving for Florida where he was being sent to treat his condition, he died on February 13, 1888. He was 28 years of age. A Requiem Mass was celebrated in his home parish of Holy Cross, at which Father Francis McGowan, O.S.A. preached. His body was brought to Villanova where a Funeral Mass was offered, after which he was buried in the Community Cemetery.
Father Middleton eulogized Father Carr as “an exemplary, studious and religious man, gentle, and widely admired.”