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Fintan Joseph Kilbride
was born on March 18, 1927 in Bray, County Wicklow,
Ireland; he was the second of eight children.
Fintan Kilbride lived a full life infused with
passion, adventure, and a deep respect for life in
all of its various forms.
When he was growing up, Fintan’s family’s daily
regimen included attending Mass. At a very young
age, the Franciscans who ministered at the church
instilled in Fintan a social conscience. This led
him to pursue his dream of becoming a priest in the
Spiritan Congregation, in order to work as a
missionary in Trinidad and Nigeria. While in
Nigeria, Fintan was a high school teacher and
administrator, and built three boarding schools, a
teacher-training college, and a fifty-bed hospital.
With the onset of the Biafran civil uprising in
Eastern Nigeria in the late 1960’s, Fintan’s life
was to take some unexpected changes. As a result of
the Biafran crisis, Fintan’s hospital ran out of
medical supplies, and his bishop sent him to New
York to raise support for the on-going work of the
church and its beleaguered people. He found a
willing audience and raised funds for tens of
thousands of pounds of food and medical supplies.
This was an early part of what was to become one of
the largest civilian-organized air-lifts in the
world. The experiences of some of the doctors
involved in this led them to create “Medecins Sans
Frontiers” (Doctors Without Borders).
One of the most profound moments in Fintan’s life
occurred when he survived a plane crash in Nigeria
while taking medical supplies into the war zone.
“It changed me forever,” Kilbride has been quoted as
saying. He felt that God had more work for him to
do, and that however the war would end, his service
should continue. Fintan’s work was guided by the
admonition of St. Francis that he often quoted: “Go,
teach the gospel to all; if necessary, use words.”
He was a man of action who was always more
comfortable doing good than talking about it.
In 1970 Biafra finally fell to the forces of the
Nigerian government. On each of his fund-raising
trips to the U.S. Fintan was extensively interviewed
by a press eager to hear “the latest” from the war
zone. He was very outspoken in his criticism of the
Nigerian government, and as a result, Fintan was
expelled from the country. With many of the other
Spiritans who left Nigeria, he returned to graduate
studies in New York. There, after nearly two decades
as a priest, he felt God’s call to marry Kenise
Murphy, a fellow student who had been a nun. They
married in 1973, completed their studies, and moved
to Canada in 1975, where Fintan resumed teaching
with the priests of the Congregation of the Holy
Spirit at Neil McNeil High School in Toronto. Their
daughter Siobhan was born shortly before they left
New York, and three years later in Toronto, a second
daughter, Ciara, completed their family. Fintan’s
changing life circumstances did not alter his
ideology and principles, however. Instead, he
lived out his values as a husband, father, and
teacher with the Toronto Catholic District School
Board. He became an inspiration to his students as
he demonstrated his standards by living them.
In 1991, Fintan launched an international
cooperative educational summer school program at
Neil McNeil. Catholic Secondary School. Its purpose
was to introduce students to the conditions of those
living in developing countries through work in
Kingston, Jamaica, and to help them understand the
links between those conditions and the actions of
first-world nations. Students from an increasing
number of schools in Canada, the U.S., and beyond
began to take part in these trips. After Fintan’s
retirement he continued his trips to Jamaica, taking
with him, anyone willing to help. Fintan Kilbride
was a priest turned teacher who devoted his life to
helping those in emergent countries, especially
Haiti, Nicaragua, and Jamaica. The legacy of this
great man lives on in this organization which is
today called Students Crossing Borders. The
organization has expanded to include participants
from all walks of life, who all reap the educational
and spiritual benefits of the experience.
In March, 2005, Fintan Kilbride was given the Marion
Tyrrell Award of Merit by the Ontario English
Catholic Teachers Association for his work for
social justice; this was the first time this award
has been given to a retired teacher. In November,
2005, he was given the Lewis Perinbam Award by the
Canadian Bureau for International Education for his
work both with youth and with developing countries.
In 2006 the Congregation of the Holy Spirit awarded
him the Francis Libermann medal for service to
humanity in the spirit of their founder.
As well as pursuing endeavors for social justice,
Fintan was a great sportsman. He won 19 U.S.
National Racquetball Championships and 6 Canadian
National Championships in his age divisions. At age
65, Fintan won the World 65+ racquetball title and
the U.S. national 60+ and 65+ divisions. As a
result, the American Racquetball Association adopted
what they called the “Fintan Kilbride Rule”:
henceforth a player could enter only one age
category per tournament! But in Canada at age 69, he
was the Ontario Provincial champion in the 35+ and
45+ divisions.
Fintan died very peacefully on December 21, 2006,
after losing his final match with cancer.
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