Rev. John Quinn, 85, professor

The Rev. John M. Quinn, 85,a philosophy professor at Villanova University for more than 20 years, died of heart failure Oct. 3 at St. Thomas Monastery in Villanova.

Father Quinn taught in several Catholic high schools, at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, and at Biscayne College in Florida. He taught at Villanova for three years in the 1960s and returned to the school in 1973.

He taught Villanova undergraduates as well as Augustinian seminary students and was associate director of the Augustinian Historical Institute. He authored many books and articles on St. Augustine, the founder of his religious order. In 2002 he published A Companion to the Confessions of Saint Augustine, which a critic called a "brilliant and sensitive interpretation of the subtleties of Augustine's text."

Father Quinn was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, and immigrated to Philadelphia with his parents as an infant. He was a brilliant student, voracious reader and great shortstop, said his sister Rose Benner. He was a graduate of Northeast Catholic High School. He always wanted to be a priest, his sister said, and he joined the Augustinian seminary on Staten Island after attending Villanova University for two years.  He was ordained in 1949.

Father Quinn earned a bachelor's degree from Villanova in the seminary and a master's degree and doctorate in philosophy from Catholic University of America.

He was close to his extended family and he officiated at the weddings of his siblings and their children and baptized many of their offspring. He was especially close to his sister Rose Andrew, a nun who died at 39.

Though he returned only once to his native Ireland, he was proud of his heritage, Benner said. He included relatives in Ireland on the mailing list for his yearly Christmas letter, which he printed on green paper.

In addition to his sister, Father Quinn is survived by brothers Andrew and Thomas; another sister, Anne Walsh; and nieces and nephews.

A Funeral Mass was said Oct. 8 at St. Thomas of Villanova Church on the university campus. Burial was in Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken.