Please Remember in Your Prayers John Bannigan Jr., 73

Please remember in your prayers John F. Bannigan Jr., a 1958 College of St. Thomas graduate who died Friday, Dec. 4. He was an active member of the university's Alumni Association and had many close St. Thomas ties.

His two sons, John Bannigan III, a 1985 St. Thomas graduate, and Brendan Bannigan, a 1989 graduate, are gift officers with the university's Development Office. His wife, Margaret Mary "Meg" Bannigan, is a retired librarian who worked at St. Thomas and the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity for more than 25 years. He also is survived by a daughter, Molly Bannigan Heisler; like her mother, Molly is a College of St. Catherine graduate.

John Bannigan Jr.

John Bannigan Jr.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8, at O'Halloran & Murphy, 575 S. Snelling Ave. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas on the university's St. Paul campus.

John, 73, received a University of Minnesota law degree in 1961 and retired as a senior partner with the Bannigan and Kelly, P.A., law firm.

He served on the St. Thomas Alumni Association board from 2001 to 2009, and was the board's president from 2005 to 2008. As board member he served on the Strategic Planning Task Force and the Educational, Spiritual and Events Committee.

In addition to serving as the alumni representative on the St. Thomas Board of Trustees from 2007 to 2009, he was active in a long list of alumni-related events that included reunion committees, First Friday lunches, golf tournaments, St. Thomas Day, Heritage Day, Take-a-Tommie-to-Lunch program, School of Law Forum, Regan Lectures, community cleanup projects, Irish Poetry Award, Entrepreneur Awards, Opening Doors capital campaign, Red Mass and Christmas luncheons and concerts.

He also was an adjunct professor at St. Thomas during the 1960s.

An obituary and guest book can be found at this Pioneer Press Web site. Memorials are preferred to St. Thomas, Cretin-Derham Hall and the Merriam Park Block Nurse Program.