Father Leo

New York Mysteries    July 31

Are you going to Oppenheimer? Hard not to even if it is three hours long. My cousin, Leo Haigerty (1924 -2001), worked on the Manhattan project. When I was five years old my mother and I would visit her New Jersey family in the summer. One summer we were told that Leo was working on a secret project in New York City. My three year old cousin, my eight year old cousin and I were told not to ask Leo any questions, not t be nosy when he visited. Offhand I can’t think of anything we could have asked Leo. He was delightful with us kids. A natural teacher, he taught us about earthworms. He found some in the garden and had us examine them gently, knowing how children like to squish things.

At that time my mother and I were living in Loogootee, Indiana with my recently deceased father’s family who had kindly taken us in after my father’s ship was torpedoed. Leo’s parents lived nearby. After completing his mysterious work on the Manhattan project, Leo became a Roman Catholic priest. He ended his days as a chaplin at Perdue and is buried in the Priests Circle in Saint John’s Cemetery, Loogootee, Indiana.

I regret not having known him better.