obituary

Brother Robert McCann

Posted

NARRAGANSETT - Christian Brother Robert McCann, 76, a member of the La Salle School Community, Albany, N.Y., died Jan. 31 at Jeanne Jugan Residence, Pawtucket.

Born in Providence, he was the son of the late Edmund J. and Irene (Finburg) McCann.

Brother McCann entered the Brothers of the Christian Schools at Barrytown, N.Y., in 1948, and received the order's habit that September. He received a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from The Catholic University of America, Washington, in 1953. He also attended Manhattan College and Fordham University, both in the Bronx, N.Y., and Siena College, Loudonville, N.Y., where he pursued graduate studies, and received a master's degree in social welfare from Fordham University in 1962.

Brother McCann served as a teacher and administrator at schools conducted by his religious community in New York and New Jersey throughout his career, and also promoted vocations for the New York district. In 1994, he became the director general of the Christian Brothers Center, Narragansett.

In 1999, he was assigned by the superior general to serve as auxiliary visitor of the Toronto delegation of the Christian Brothers in Canada, working for the delegation to become part of the New York district of Christian Brothers, which officially took place in January of this year.

Brother McCann is survived by a brother, Edmund McCann of Seekonk, Mass., four nephews and a niece.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Feb. 3 at Our Lady of the Star Chapel, Christian Brothers Center. Burial was in the Brothers' Cemetery, Narragansett.

(This obituary originally appeared in The Providence Visitor)