Two days later, after serving as Fr. Earley's assistant for all those 19 years, Father donlon was appointed Pastor, and tw months later, Father Ernest Baldecker was assigned as curate. The pastors who have served Irvington have been alike in their dedication to the parish and in their determination to get things done, but they have been remarkably different in peronalit and approach. Father Donlon was a quiet and gentle man. A classics shcolar, he had taught at Marymount Collete since its founding by James Butler's sister, Mother Butler, in 1907. Despite a scholarly bent, he achieved a close rapport with the children of the parish. He spent hours in the school, his special pride. "We were all very fond of Father Donlon, and he loved the children," recalls Ann Lee MacNicol. "Every Friday at 11:30, he would give us instructions about the different sacraments and sacramentals. When we made our First Communion and Confirmation, he followed our instructions, keeping close to us all the way," she tells us.

"When my little sister Katherine fell and was bedridden for nine months, and before she died at the age of ten (10), Father Donlon would walk the mile and one quarter from the church to our house to visit her every week, and give her First Communion. I loved to see him coming."

A sign of how much Father Donlon improved Catholic-Protestant relations in the village - and how cool they were at one point - is contained in a short poem written in 1938 by Dr. Robert McGowan, then pastor of the Irvington Presbyterian Church.

These window look across a street
As wide as poles apart,
Till ne'er a greeting passed between
Where faith but needed heart.

But Father Donlon, you and I,
A little wiser grown,
A greeting wave across the street
With enmity unknown.

Then may your light shine ever clear
Across the winter night,
For in the silence of my heart
It is a lovely sight.