O'Hara, Edwin

O'Hara, Edwin (Vincent)

(1881–1956) Catholic prelate; born in Lanesboro, Minn. Ordained in 1905, he did pastoral work in Oregon; his concern for fostering religious life and education in sparsely Catholic rural areas led him to found the National Catholic Rural Life Conference (1923), which he directed until 1930, when he became bishop of Great Falls, Mont. In 1939 he was named bishop of Kansas City, becoming archbishop in 1954.

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