Michael Finnegan Continues Into His Eighth Year as President of the American Catholic Historical Society

By Marita Krivda Poxon

Michael Finnegan heard about the American Catholic Historical Society (ACHS) around fifteen years ago from two fellow Irish American friends Jim McSherry and Jim Fitzsimmons who promoted his appointment to the Society’s Board. Within a few years he became vice president first and then president. This year he is serving his eighth year as president and considers this position one of the very great honors of his life.

The ACHS has its headquarters in a magnificent, Federal-era townhouse located in Society Hill at 263 South 4^th Street directly across the street from Old St. Mary’s Church.  

Now its 137^th year since its 1884 founding in Philadelphia, the ACHS was first under the leadership of Father Martin I. J. Griffin along with a group of Catholic writers and editors.  Their mission at that time was to collect, record, research and maintain historical documents, books and artifacts related to Catholicism. An additional ACHS mission since 1884 has been the publication of the oldest, continuous Catholic scholarly journal called today:American Catholic Studies: Journal of the American Catholic Historical Society.  

Now the ACHS’s mission is not so much the collection of books and historic documents as the promotion of Catholic scholarship, research and lectures. It also holds signature events such as its annual black-tie Commodore Barry Award Dinner given each December. Cancelled in 2020, Finnegan has announced that the Barry Dinner will be held at the Union League on Friday, December 3^rd, 2021 and will honor Archbishop Nelson Perez.

The past pandemic year has changed the way the ACHS has operated.  In a way the pandemic has been a blessing for the society since much of its activities have gone virtual.  The ACHS which now subscribes to Zoom Webinar services holds its Board meetings via Zoom.  This has allowed many more members to attend virtually including elderly members and those living at a distance from Philadelphia.

The society held its first Zoom Webinar in 2020.  The Board noticed that online attendance doubled compared to former in-person lecture attendance.   Live Zoom lectures recently have been given on: The Life of Father Thomas A. Judge and Father Judge High School; Spotlight on Local History: The Philadelphia Irish  by Michael Mullan; and Little Flower High School (which hosted nearly 150 attendees on Zoom and Facebook).

A very special event happened on Sunday May 16^th when the ACHS’s first hybrid event took place. This event honored Dr. Lawrence Flick, an ACHS founder and early president. A small group of people met at the townhouse while many more attended virtually through a Webinar.  The family of Dr. Lawrence Flick presented Flick’s University of Notre Dame Laetare Medal to the ACHS while standing near the society’s Flick portrait.

This enormous increase in lecture attendance due to COVID restrictions has been a boon for Finnegan. The ACHS may never go back to the way things were done before.  It has begun a Strategic Planning process to help guide the society to grow its outreach both nationally and internationally. It recently saw a jump in new membership through subscriptions to its quarterly print journal, American Catholic Studies.

The ACHS has also engaged JSTOR and Project Muse to provide access to over 100 years of this journal for libraries and research centers all over the world.  Access to the full run of the journal is also a benefit of current ACHS membership. 

The society will soon be announcing a partnership with the Catholic Research Resources Alliance to preserve aging copies of the Catholic Standard and Times newspaper.

Finnegan has said of the progress made during the past year: “Even when we get back to full events at our house, we will continue to stream them, as attendance has more than doubled since we started streaming, and we want to keep those new national and international supporters informed. We are upgrading our internet and video infrastructure at the Society’s house to handle the new normal. As we all wait to gather with our members face-to-face and share a drink and song.”

Finnegan’s background is 100 percent Irish which prompted him to secure Irish citizenship.  His paternal grandfather was Thomas Finnegan born in 1902 who was a self-taught musician.  He hailed from County Roscommon.  His grandmother was Bridget Cunnion Finnegan from County Leitrim. 

Finnegan grew up in North Philadelphia on the next block nearby his Irish grandparents.  He often visited them hearing the lilt of their brogues and listening to his father play Irish tunes. His own parents with their three children attended St. Stephen’s Catholic Church located at Broad and Butler Streets.  Later Finnegan attended Roman Catholic High School and graduated from Drexel University where he majored in Electrical Engineering.

In 1987, along with five others, he helped to found a very successful company called LabWare which builds laboratory informatics solutions.  It is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.  Finnegan is very proud that his company now has locations in over 15 countries worldwide with over 500 employees.   He lives nearby LabWare in Kennett Square with his wife and one of his two sons. 

As if all the work he does for the ACHS and LabWare isn’t enough Finnegan has served for many years on the Board of Directors of Roman Catholic High School founded in 1890 by Irishman Thomas E. Cahill.  He was elected treasurer for the Kennett Consolidated School District Board as well as serving as a board member for the Kennett Education Foundation. Finnegan has said that he has scaled back recently:

“Non-profit work is a huge part of my life…There are numerous other boards that I had served on for extended periods, including music education support boards, as well as local, state, and national soccer boards.  A few years ago, I trimmed down those last boards to dedicate more time to Roman, ACHS, and Kennett, as well as my grandchildren.”