Joe Ferraro first met Father Bryan O’Rourke in 1944 while walking to his first day of kindergarten at St. Mark School in St. Paul. Ferraro recalled those grade school days and a lifelong friendship with the priest, who died April 17 in Los Angeles. He was 81. 

The two lived only a block apart, near Dayton Avenue where the school is located, with Ferraro passing by the O’Rourke home on his way to the school, Ferraro said. He went to grade school and high school with Father O’Rourke, with the two graduating from then-Cretin High School in 1957. On that first day of kindergarten and many others after that, Ferraro said, the two walked the final block to St. Mark School “with our mothers trailing behind.” 

One of Ferraro’s earliest memories of Father O’Rourke was from the third grade. It took place upstairs in the Ferraro family’s attic. 

“We built an altar up there for him,” Ferraro recalled. “And, my mom made some vestments. She sewed some things together. We would literally play Mass. He’d be the priest and I’d be the altar boy.” 

Ten years ago, Ferraro found the vestments, which were still up in the attic of that home. He gave them to Father O’Rourke as a Christmas gift, and the priest “got such a kick out of it,” Ferraro recalled. 

Father O’Rourke put on vestments for real after being ordained to the priesthood in 1966 in Marathon, Wisconsin, for the Capuchin Franciscan Friars, Province of St. Joseph. For a time, his older brother Jerry was in the order, eventually leaving and getting married. 

Father O’Rourke had long wanted to be the pastor of St. Mark someday, said Pat Hartshorn, a longtime parishioner and sacristan at St. Mark who was a year behind Father O’Rourke at the school. Father O’Rourke was incardinated into the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1989, and became pastor of St. Mark in 2001, his last assignment before retiring in 2007.  

Other parishes in the archdiocese where he served were St. Mary of the Lake in Plymouth (1991-2001), Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul (1989-1991) and St. Michael in Stillwater (1989). 

Hartshorn remembers Father O’Rourke as a priest who cared about everyone and had a heart for the poor and disadvantaged. During weekend Masses at St. Mark, children brought food donations to the altar during the offertory, and Father O’Rourke greeted and smiled at them when they came forward, Hartshorn said. After retiring, Father O’Rourke moved to Los Angeles and continued his work for the poor through Cross Catholic Outreach. 

“He was really a compassionate guy, especially for people who were down and out or needed consoling,” said Hartshorn. She noted that Father O’Rourke suffered a heart attack while at St. Mark, but recovered and continued in ministry.

The youngest of four children, Father O’Rourke was known in high school for his love of dancing, which did not go unnoticed when he and classmates attended local dances. During his senior year, he was voted best dancer. Classmates said girls always lined up to get on his dance card. 

“He was really a close friend all the way through grade school and high school,” said Phil McLaughlin, a classmate who maintained a friendship with Father O’Rourke all the way until his death, talking to him just four days before he died. “He just was an absolutely colossal person. There just are few people like him on earth.” 

Funeral arrangements are pending, with the family expressing a desire to have the funeral at St. Mark. The funeral Mass for Father O’Rourke’s sister, Sheila Belting, who died in December, is planned for June at St. Mark. He had hoped to be the celebrant.