Donal T. MacVeigh, SJ, was born to Patrick and Rose (Taggart) MacVeigh on August 11, 1941, in Manhattan. His connection to the Jesuits started early when he was baptized at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue. By the time he was ready for high school, a short walk around the corner to Regis High School (1955-59) on 84th Street was a natural for the bright young Donal.
After graduating from Regis, he entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, NY, in August of 1959, where he pronounced first vows two years later. Following the usual path in those days, from Poughkeepsie Donal headed to Loyola Seminary in Shrub Oak, NY, for three years of philosophy studies (1963-66). Then, with a philosophy degree under his belt, he spent a year living at Fordham’s Spellman Hall while studying physics at the University (1966-67).
For regency it was back to Manhattan where, for two years, Donal taught Physics at Xavier High School (1967-69). From Xavier on 16th Street it was an easy move uptown to do his theology studies at Woodstock College (1969-72) which had just made the move to New York City. On June 10, 1972, Donal was ordained a priest by Terence Cardinal Cooke at Fordham’s University Church.
After his ordination, Donal and computer science began a forty-three-year love affair (1972-2015) with all its many ups and downs, successes and failures, joys and sorrows. It began in earnest down south where Donal began his formal study of computer science at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Not that anything could have made Donal think of himself as a Tarheel, four years (1972-76) at UNC was not enough to do so.
In 1976 computer science propelled Donal up north to Syracuse, NY, where for the next eleven years (1976-87) he both taught computer science at Le Moyne College and immersed himself in doctoral studies at Syracuse University. It was during this time that he was able to do a year long, two summer tertianship program under the direction of Fr. Jim McGinley, SJ, which led to his taking final vows as a Jesuit in April of 1982. Then, at long last, in 1987, he was awarded his Ph.D. in computer science. Even after eleven years, Donal’s Celtic blood would never have allowed him to think of himself as an Orangeman; it never even crossed his mind.
With doctorate in hand, Donal’s first, and longest, assignment was to St. Peter’s College (now University) in Jersey City, N.J. There, for twenty-eight years (1987-2015), besides adding to the Jesuit presence on the faculty, Donal was professor of computer science, and for most of those years was chair of the computer science department. During this time, he enjoyed a sabbatical year (1995-96) at the University of Limerick in Ireland.
After a good long run at St. Peter’s, Donal retired from the computer science department in 2015 which freed him to do some pastoral work for a while. In 2015 Donal moved all the way up to Maine where he worked as a hospital chaplain in Portland and lived and helped out at Our Lady of Hope Parish. A year later he moved to Salem, New Hampshire, where he lived and worked at Saints Mary and Joseph Parish.
By mid-2017 Donal was ready for full retirement and he moved to Murray-Weigel Hall , the Jesuit health care facility in the Bronx. Besides his assignment to pray for the Church and the Society of Jesus, Donal delighted in the companionship of his many Jesuit brothers whom he had known over the years. He had more time to spend on the extensive genealogy projects which he had so enjoyed researching over the years, and he was always grateful for the ever-faithful visits from his sister Dorothy.
Donal had no pretensions. What you saw was what you got. His Jesuit friends would hasten to let you know that they never heard him speak an unkind word about anyone. It was , no doubt, the Leprechaun in him that accounted for his wry sense of humor and the twinkle in his eye. Little by little Donal’s health failed and he died peacefully on All Souls Day 2025 after several weeks of gradually increasing physical discomfort. We are confident that Donal is now comfortably at rest in the arms of the Lord Jesus whom he served so faithfully as a Jesuit for sixty-nine years.
Click here to light a Virtual Candle in memoriam of the life and legacy of Fr. Donal T. MacVeigh, SJ.
