Father Vincent Depaul Cushing, OFM, passed away on Nov. 14, 2024, at the age of 90. He was a board member emeritus of the In Trust Center for Theological Schools and played a pivotal role in the founding of the Center.

He was the founding board chair of what became In Trust magazine and then later the In Trust Center. He spent years working in theological education and was well-known for his contributions to the field. As president of the Washington Theological Union, he provided a place for the nonprofit group to call home in its early years.

Cushing was received into the Order of Friars Minor in 1956 and ordained to the priesthood in 1963. He earned the Licentiate in Sacred Theology and a doctor of sacred theology from the Catholic University of America.

He was part of the founding of the Washington Theological Union (WTU), which brought several Catholic orders together, and became an assistant professor of ecclesiology in 1969. He was named president in 1975 and served until 1999, creating an endowment, developing programs, and adding the first laypeople to the board.

He was the first Roman Catholic president of the Association of Theological Schools, and he served as a board member of a seminary and a college.

After retiring as president, he took a sabbatical and returned to teach at WTU until the school’s closing in 2013. He served as a chaplain at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and ministered at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Maryland until retirement in 2021.

Watch a memorial to Father Cushing at: youtube.com