McQuaid, Bernard

McQuaid, Bernard (John)

(1823–1909) Catholic prelate; born in New York City. Raised in a Catholic orphanage after his parents died, he was ordained in 1848. He was a cofounder (1856) and first president of Seton Hall University (South Orange, N.J.) before being named bishop of Rochester, N.Y. (1868). Regarded as a conservative, he opposed the Knights of Labor as a secret society and led a clerical faction that strongly promoted parochial schools while attacking "godless" public education.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.