Reverend Fr. John M. Corridan (1911-1984) was a

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priest who fought against corruption and

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

on the New York City waterfront. He was the inspiration for the character of "Father Barry" in the classic film ''

On the Waterfront ''On the Waterfront'' is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando and features Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning, and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. ...

''.

Biography

Son of a

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-born policeman in New York's

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

, Corridan graduated from Manhattan's Regis High School in 1928. Father Corridan was assigned to the Xavier Institute of Industrial Relations on Manhattan's West Side in 1946. He became a passionate advocate of reform in the

International Longshoremen's Association The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) is a North American labor union representing longshore workers along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and inland waterways. The ILA h ...

waterfront union. Father Corridan collaborated with Malcolm Johnson in Johnson's articles on waterfront corruption. He was the subject of a 1955 biography, ''Waterfront Priest'' by Allen Raymond. The introduction of the book was by

Budd Schulberg Budd Schulberg (born Seymour Wilson Schulberg, March 27, 1914 – August 5, 2009) was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his novels ''What Makes Sammy Run?'' and ''The Harder They Fall;'' ...

, screenwriter of ''On the Waterfront'', who described how he met with Father Corridan frequently in researching the screenplay. Schulberg described Father Corridan as a "tall, youthful, balding, energetic, ruddy-faced Irishman whose speech was a fascinating blend of Hell's Kitchen jargon, baseball slang, the facts and figures of a master in economics and the undeniable humanity of Christ." Schulberg wrote that Father Corridan "led me to understand that there is nothing unusual about a Catholic priest's involving himself in moral issues that find practical form in the daily lives of his parishioners." According to a 1983 article in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', Father Corridan's work was instrumental in formation of the New York-New Jersey

Waterfront Commission The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor (WCNYH) is a regulatory agency in Port of New York and New Jersey in the United States. The bi-state agency was founded in 1953 by a Congressional authorized compact between New York and New Jersey "for t ...

aimed at curbing waterfront crime. Father Corridan, then retired, told a Times reporter that he believed that conditions on the waterfront had changed over the years. The Times reported: "When he visited some former colleagues in Manhattan last year, he recalled, current conditions on the docks were barely discussed. 'I'm sure if anything of consequence were going on,' he said, 'somebody would have gotten in touch with me.'" Father Corridan left the waterfront in 1957 to teach economics at

Le Moyne College Le Moyne College is a private Jesuit college in DeWitt, New York.http://www.ongov.net/planning/haz/documents/Section9.7-TownofDeWitt.pdf It was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1946 and named after Jesuit missionary Simon Le Moyne. At its fo ...

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. He later taught theology at Saint Peter's College in

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. Corridan died of a heart attack on July 1, 1984 at the Misericordia Medical Center in the Bronx. He was 73 years old and had lived in a health-care center at Fordham University.

Sources and further reading

Article in Company magazine, Summer 2003
* Raymond, Allen, ''Waterfront Priest'' (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1955)

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060904170355/http://www.fordham.edu/Campus_Resources/Public_Affairs/Inside_Fordham/Inside_Fordham_Archi/May_2003/News/The_Priest_Who_Made__11100.asp The Priest Who Made Budd Schulberg Run: ''On the Waterfront'' and Jesuit Social Action, Inside Fordham Online, May 2003]
New York Times obituary, July 3, 1984
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corridan, John M. 1911 births 1984 deaths American people of Irish descent 20th-century American Jesuits Saint Peter's University faculty Le Moyne College faculty International Longshoremen's Association Regis High School (New York City) alumni