byFather Robert M. O'Grady Pilot Staff
Father Daniel J. Hickey Pilot file photo
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Father Daniel J. Hickey, an Arlington native, died on Aug. 23, 2020. He was 89 years old, having celebrated that birthday anniversary on May 10, 2020. He was the youngest of the three children of the late Daniel and Julia (Collins) Hickey, both immigrants from Ireland. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his siblings Anne (Hickey) Dunn and John Hickey in 2001 and 2005, respectively.
He was raised in Immaculate Conception Parish, Cambridge -- which though now suppressed -- had been composed of sections of Arlington, Cambridge, and Somerville. He attended the parish school and was an alumnus of Matignon High School, which was located conveniently behind Immaculate Conception School and Church.
Following high school graduation, he entered the Maryknoll College Seminary in Glen Ellyn, Ill., and then St. John Seminary, Brighton, and, on completion of seminary studies, he was ordained at Holy Cross Cathedral on Feb. 2, 1959, by Richard Cardinal Cushing. That class had the distinction of being the first class ordained by Boston's archbishop since he had been given the "Red Hat" the previous December by Pope St. John XXIII.
Between ordination and 1967, he served as an assistant at three parishes: Sacred Heart, Middleborough; St. Bridget, Maynard, and St. Joseph, Needham. In 1967, he was granted permission to enroll in the Chaplain Corps of the United States Navy and following his commissioning was assigned to Vietnam.
He remained only two years as he was overwhelmed by the devastation he experienced, especially the deaths of US Naval personnel but also of the multiple civilian victims of the war.
On his return to the archdiocese, he served as an associate in four parishes: Sacred Heart, Lynn; St. Charles Borromeo, Woburn; and St. Anne, Readville; and his longest assignment as an associate at St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge. This placed him next door to his home parish; in fact, the Cambridge section of Immaculate Conception had been carved from St. John to create his home parish. He always spoke fondly of his 11 years at North Cambridge.
In January 1985, Archbishop Bernard F. Law named him pastor of Sacred Hearts Parish in Malden. He remained at the helm of the parish for almost three decades, until his retirement on Sept. 1, 2013.
During the years he saw, as did many pastors, a demographic shift and at Malden there was a large influx of Vietnamese Catholics. In addition, he saw a shift in the parish school when the Sisters of Providence, who had for many years staffed the school, withdrew and the administration was entrusted to lay personnel.
Father Hickey developed a relationship with the Society of Jesus, and for many years his parish was a "teaching parish" for Jesuit seminarians and newly ordained priests. He "always had Jesuits."
If you called the rectory on Friday night, he would most definitely not be there at dinner time. He had a "standing appointment" at Jimmy's Harborside on Boston's Waterfront. The restaurant, now shuttered and razed, was a regular dining spot for many Boston priests. Dan was unique because he sat at the same table every single Friday. If you were in his path when he was leaving, he stopped to say hello. Even after Jimmy's closed, he continued, though not exclusively on Friday, to dine at another Jimmy's, this one in Arlington.
Father Hickey was pastor at Malden for seven years past the "normal" retirement age, not leaving Malden for retirement until 2013. He lived on his own until he moved into Regina Cleri in 2017. He died on Aug. 23, 2020, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
Father Hickey's Funeral Mass was celebrated at Sacred Hearts, Malden, on Aug. 28, 2020. One of his Jesuit collaborators, Father Thomas D. Stegman, SJ, now the dean of the School of Theology and Ministry was to serve as the homilist. Following the Funeral Mass, Father Hickey was buried in the Hickey Family lot at St. Joseph Cemetery, West Roxbury.