A Wellesley native born Sept. 30, 1937, as the youngest of the three children of the late Francis and Priscilla (Dickson) Daley, he was raised in Wellesley and was son of St. Paul Parish there. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his two older sisters.

An alumnus of the archdiocesan seminaries, he was ordained in 1963 -- the class with five ordination Masses. Richard Cardinal Cushing ordained Father Daley's section of the class at Holy Cross Cathedral on Feb. 2, 1963. The previous day there was an ordination at St. Ann, Gloucester also celebrated by Cardinal Cushing; while on Feb. 2 in addition to the Cathedral ordination, three other ordinations were celebrated: St. Colman of Cloyne, Brockton, Bishop Jeremiah Minihan; Holy Name, West Roxbury, Bishop Eric F. MacKenzie (the five ordained there were all native sons of Holy Name Parish); and St. Agnes, Arlington, Bishop Thomas J. Riley.

From his ordination to his senior priest status in June 2012, he served almost exclusively in archdiocesan parishes. He was either an assistant or an associate at St. Bernadette, Randolph (1963-1967, and 1969-1973); St. Benedict, Somerville (1967-1968); Sacred Herta, Cambridge (1968-1969); and St. Thomas of Villanova, Wilmington (1979-1985). From 1973-1979, he was chaplain at Malden Catholic High School, Malden.

He was pastor of two parishes: St. James the Apostle, Arlington (1985-2004) and Sts. Martha and Mary Lakeville (2004-2012). During his time at Arlington, he was also the vicar forane or dean for ten years (1989-1999).

Throughout his active priestly ministry, he saw many changes in the Church's life. His tenure in Arlington might serve as an example. The parish once boasted of the church, a fine English Gothic design, a rectory ancient of days; and a grammar school and convent for the school's faculty of Religious of Christian Education.

With the school closed because of declining enrollment and the move of the few remaining Sisters to other convents, he had two large empty facilities. He was able to lease the school and repurpose the convent to a rectory, parish offices, and use the convent chapel for the two daily Masses, morning and evening.

The old rectory was beyond repair and so the decision was made to raze it and create much needed parking spaces for the parish church. The town issued permits and the project began. Three quarters of the way through it was discovered by a member of the town's historical commission that they had razed a historic building. It seems that the church is in Appleton Street, while the now razed "historic" rectory was on Appleton Place. The town issued the permit for Appleton Street, the "non-historic" church. The contractors arrived armed with the permit and proceeded to raze the rectory for which they had no permit. With a lot of noise intervening, Father Dailey waited and saw his new church parking lot paved a few weeks later.

Following his retirement in 2012, he continued to reside in his own home in Wareham and assisted in parishes in the area.

His health declined in the past few years and more rapidly in the past few months.

He died at Tobey Hospital, Wareham on May 16, 2024.

His Funeral Mass was celebrated at his home parish, St. Paul, Wellesley on May 23, 2024. The principal celebrant and homilist of the Mass was Father Arnold Medeiros, a senior priest of the Fall River diocese. Father Daley had assisted at Father Medeiros's parish in Falmouth during his retirement years. Cardinal O'Malley had visited with the Daley family prior to the Funeral Mass at St. Paul Church during the calling hour. Auxiliary Bishop Peter J. Uglietto attended the Mass and he celebrated the Final Commendation at the conclusion of the Funeral Mass.

Following the funeral Mass, Father Daley was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Wellesley.