Fr. Lawrence Joseph Drennan, age 83 passed away peacefully after an extended hospitalization. He was the son of Richard P. and Margaret G. (Murray) Drennan, both RIP. He was born on July 27, 1931 in Hempstead, L. I., N.Y. Fr. Drennan did most of his ‘growing up’ in Medford where he was a product of the Medford public schools, graduating from Medford High School in 1949.
While in high school, he participated in several sports activities both playing and lettering on the MHS baseball and hockey teams. He maintained many friendships with those friends as well as friends from elementary and junior high school, joining them frequently for dinners and class reunions. Over the years, Father’s friendships spanned all age groups and many beyond his years. One sport for which he always maintained a great love was golf. He played locally and in many clubs around the state and country, sometimes for activities that benefitted various worthy causes. As a young boy, he was among the earliest members of the N. E. Left Handed Golfers’ Association, begun and often hosted by the multi-talented and well-known former Boston Post sports writer and Herald columnist, Bill Cunningham (RIP). Fr. Drennan not only loved playing golf with fellows both young and old but also his Father who personally taught him his earliest golf lessons. During his priestly years, the love of golf kept him busy on his days off and vacation times with priests and friends from the many communities he served and also friends of his beloved older brothers.
Fr. Drennan was a graduate alumnus of Boston College (1953), Chestnut Hill, MA. He loved everything Boston College. After graduation, he did a tour of duty in the U.S. Army at Fort Dix, N.J. at the time of the Korean Conflict. Upon completion of his tour, he attended The St. Philip Neri School for Delayed Vocations and later entered St. John’s Seminary, Brighton in the fall of 1957 and was ordained in the winter of 1961. He was assigned to several churches in the Boston Diocese. Among them were: The Blessed Sacrament Church, Hough’s Neck, MA: St. Dorothy’s in Wilmington, MA: St. Francis Xavier in Weymouth, MA and later became Pastor at St. Joseph’s in Lincoln, MA and later Pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Bridgewater, MA. Father Drennan made numerous friends in all the parishes to which he was assigned and maintained many of those loving friendships over the years he was a priest, pastor and retiree. Fr. Drennan always regarded his parishioners as his family. He celebrated his Golden Anniversary as a priest in 2011 at a Mass and Reception at St. Joseph’s Church in Medford.
During Fr. Drennan’s retirement, he remained a very active priest, assisting at many churches with their regular commitments and saying Masses regularly at numerous churches throughout the Diocese. Fr. Drennan will be remembered by his priestly associates and church communicants as a truly friendly and genuinely welcoming priest to all in whatever community he served. He loved being with people; they loved him, and that love was mutual. He particularly enjoyed relating stories about his large birth family and growing-up stories from his hometown, Medford.
Art and its many variations were favorite activities and avocations for Fr. Drennan. He became proficient at ‘scrimshaw’ and made many pieces that were sold at several church fairs where he was assigned. For several years he sang with a group of priests known as ‘The Singing Priests.’ They performed at public and church community functions in the diocese and were often invited to travel and participate in public singing performances throughout the United States.
Fr. Drennan was raised in a large family of six children in Medford, MA. He was preceded in death by his brother, Atty. F. Richard Drennan, Pittsfield, MA, R. Peter Drennan and wife, Ann (Conlon) Drennan and their son, Michael R. Drennan of Enfield, CT, and a sister, Margaret M. Drennan of NYC and Medford, MA. He is survived by his brother, Robert M. Drennan, Medford, MA and sister, Ann B. (Drennan) Forsyth and husband, Donald R. Forsyth of Germantown, TN, plus many loving cousins, nieces and nephews, priest friends, and several great-nieces/nephews and a great-great niece and great-great nephew, all of whom he loved dearly and many of whom he married and/or baptized over the years.
Fr. Drennan can be viewed at the Beals-Geake-Magliozzi Funeral Home, 29 Governors Avenue, Medford, MA on Sunday, August 17th from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM. A Catholic Mass of the Resurrection will be offered on Monday morning at 11:00 AM at St. Joseph’s Church, 118 High Street in Medford. A Catholic burial service will follow the funeral Mass at the Oak Grove Cemetery, 230 Playstead Road, West Medford. Friends and relatives are welcomed to visit the family at the funeral home on Sunday and before Mass the morning of the funeral.