Knights of Columbus

Father E. Philip O'Hern, CSP, was born August 6, 1906 at West Point, New York, where his father, Colonel O'Hern, had taught Generals Patton and Eisenhower as cadets. As a boy, he expected to follow the military career of his father and maternal grandfather (O'Hara), but a physical injury turned his thoughts to the priesthood of his uncle, Paulist Father Louis O'Hern. In 1924 at the age of 18 Phil was received into the Paulist community. He was in the first class to make a canonical novitiate at Ridgefield, Connecticut. He completed his college and theological studies at The Catholic University where he received the BA, STB, and MA degrees. He was ordained a Catholic priest on June 11, 1932, by his uncle John Francis O'Hern, Bishop of Rochester.

Father Phil's first assignment was to Old St. Mary's parish in San Francisco, followed by appointments to Good Shepherd in New York and Winchester, Tennessee. In 1942, he became an army chaplain, serving from Alaska through the European Theatre of Operations at forward field hospitals. Upon the liberation of the Nazi death camp in Ebensee, Austria, he saw the gas chambers and the furnaces; he buried hundreds and prayed over the sick and the dying. He probably participated in more combat action than any other Paulist during World War II, as indicated by his reception of four battle stars. (From Findagrave.com)

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