The members of the Board of Trustees and the staff of the National Institute for Newman Studies are deeply saddened to report the death of Rev. Drew Morgan (1960–2026), who passed away earlier this week after an extended illness.
Fr. Drew was born on February 9, 1960 to Mary and John Morgan. He was the youngest of seven children raised in Curwensville, PA. After graduating from Curwensville High, he received his B.A in Liberal Studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981. He continued his studies at the University of Toronto, the University of St. Michael's College where he graduated in 1984 with a master’s degree in Divinity. He returned to Pittsburgh and served as a priest of the Oratory for 35 years after his ordination in 1985. During this time Fr. Drew served as campus minister to Pitt and CMU and worked with friends to build the Ryan Catholic Newman Center on Bayard Street in the North Oakland neighborhood. He was a gifted priest, preacher, and counselor, who touched the lives of innumerable individuals and families through baptisms, weddings, funerals, and spiritual direction. His gift of friendship was interwoven with his ministry, thereby truly living Newman’s motto of “heart speaking to heart.”
In 1997, Fr. Drew completed and successfully defended his dissertation on the writings of John Henry Newman on Conscience, receiving a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University. He taught various graduate theology subjects at St. Vincent's Seminary over the course of 20 years.
In 2002, Fr. Drew and Catharine Ryan founded the National Institute for Newman Studies (NINS) housed at the Gailliot Center for Newman Studies in Oakland. The institute was founded to promote the life, thought, and legacy of John Henry Cardinal Newman. Fr. Drew was NINS’s first Director and served on the Board of Trustees for twenty-four years. NINS has gained a national and international reputation for excellence in promoting the study of Newman's philosophy, theology, Church history, spirituality and ecumenism. Because of this work, Fr. Drew was named an Honorary Fellow of his alma mater, the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto. Moreover, he was instrumental in Newman’s being beatified, canonized, and made a Doctor of the Universal Church.
In 2019, he was asked to assist Dr. Kenneth Parker in the founding of a new Department of Catholic Studies at Duquesne University. He served there as an Assistant Professor of Catholic Studies and a community liaison under the Dean of McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts until medical issues forced him to step away. Fr. Drew is survived by his brothers, John, Timothy, Scott, and Patrick, and his sister, Tracey, along with numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his brother, Terence.
As we pray for the soul of the dearly departed, we recall the words of St. John Henry Newman, whose “kindly light” meant so much to Fr. Drew.
May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done! Then in His mercy may He give us safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last!
“Wisdom and Innocence” (19 February 1843), in Sermons Bearing on the Subjects of the Day (1843/1869), 307.
Eternal rest grant unto Fr. Drew, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.