Msgr. Louis McCorkle
Fondly known by some as “Father Founder,” Msgr. Louis McCorkle has spent most of his priestly life as a faculty member at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal, which closed its doors in May, 2002. One of my earliest recollections when I entered St. Thomas as a mere 15-year-old was that pleasant smile which was a normal part of Fr. McCorkle’s demeanor. Although he reluctantly became a Monsignor at Bishop John Gaydos’s request in 2000, I and others who have known him for years still like to call him Father McCorkle.
He was born on May 28, 1921, in St. Louis, the son of Claude and Emma McCorkle. He is the oldest of four children, two brothers and one sister, of which one brother and one sister are still living. When he was five years old, the family moved to north St. Louis County near Normandy and Pine Lawn. He was seven years old when he and a brother and sister were baptized as Christians, but it wasn’t until Louis was 19 that he became Catholic. He attended McKinley Grade School and graduated from Normandy High School in 1940. When he was a junior in high school he befriended an ex-seminarian who had come as a new student in his class and that had a great influence on Louis becoming interested in the Catholic Faith. He began to hang around the Passionist Seminary in his neighborhood. He took instructions at St. Barbara Church and became Catholic at age 19.
Young Louis attended the Passionist Seminary on Natural Bridge Rd. in Normandy for four years. He spent two years at St. Gregory Seminary—Mt. Washington outside Cincinnati, Ohio. He took one year of philosophy at Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary at Cincinnati. It was at that time he decided to join the St. Joseph, Missouri Diocese because he was interested in doing rural work as a priest. He entered Conception Seminary in northwest Missouri in 1949 and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood on May 14, 1953.
After ordination in 1953, he was assigned to the old Immaculate Conception Parish in Hannibal where he served from June 1953 until April 1956. In April, 1956 he was assigned as resident chaplain at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Hannibal and was also Director of Students at McCooey High School in Hannibal with teaching duties also. He did this until September, 1958.
It was in May, 1957, while he was living at St. Elizabeth Hospital that Bishop Joseph Marling, C.PP.S, first bishop of the new Diocese of Jefferson City which was established in July, 1956, came to visit. Bishop Marling was interested in establishing a minor seminary for his new diocese. Fr. McCorkle told him about a vacant orphanage on a hill off Levering Avenue nearby, which had been the Home of the Friendless. Bishop Marling bought the building and property in May, 1957, for $60,000. Later, when it was discovered that the ball field was not a part of the property, it was bought from the owners for $10,000. Fr. McCorkle had the task of supervising the remodeling of the building and buying the furniture to prepare for the opening of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in October, 1957. He served as procurator, social studies, and music teacher in the seminary’s first year. For a short time he was spiritual director at McCooey High School in Hannibal from September, 1958, until December, 1958. He became administrator of Holy Cross Parish at Ilasco south of Hannibal from October,1958, until January, 1960, and then again from September, 1970 until its formal closing in 1996.
There were only two years that Fr. McCorkle was not in Hannibal. That was when he tried his hand as a parish pastor in three different small parishes of the Diocese. He was at St. Michael at Kahoka from July, 1968, until February, 1969. Then he lived at Sacred Heart in Vandalia from February, 1969, until October, 1969, and after that at St. Joseph in Fayette from October, 1969 until July, 1970, when he returned to Hannibal as resident chaplain at St. Elizabeth Hospital, teacher at St. Thomas Seminary, and administrator of Holy Cross at Ilasco.
Fr. McCorkle was spiritual director at St. Thomas Seminary from 1960-68. I can remember being required as a student to make quarterly visits to him as spiritual director. I can also remember the Wednesday evening conferences, which Fr. McCorkle gave from a table in the sanctuary chapel on which were placed his carefully prepared notes.
Incidentally, the only time I can remember him losing his temper and showing a little anger was at one of those Wednesday conferences when he heard a student clipping his fingernails. He told me, however, that at another time prior to my time at St. Thomas he had to go into one of the dorms to scold the students who were raising a ruckus.
Msgr. McCorkle also taught religion at St. Thomas and I can remember that during the Second Vatican Council he would keep us posted on things that were happening in that historic Church event. After my graduation from St. Thomas Seminary in 1964, in the 1967/68 school year, he began to reveal his previously hidden artistic talent and to teach art to the students except freshmen until the seminary closed in 2002. He was also known for displaying his paintings and sculpture at shows at St. Thomas and elsewhere.
Fr. McCorkle has also been known and affectionately called “Uncle Lou.” This originated from the time his nephews had been at St. Thomas and referred to him that way.
Few people probably know that Fr. McCorkle was the founder of an association of laymen modeled on Secular Institutes. It was called the Ecclesian Institute of Christian Life. The idea of it was first discussed with Bishop LeBlond of the St. Joseph Diocese, but it was actually started when Bishop John Cody was bishop of the old St. Joseph Diocese, who encouraged it. In addition to promoting the spiritual life of its members, the association was to be of help to the Church in various ways depending on needs. The brothers did a variety of things. At first, a member trained the choir of St. Patrick Parish at Clarence. Later in the summer of 1957 when the vacant building that was to become St. Thomas Seminary was being remodeled, a member stayed in the empty open structure to keep watch over the property, sometimes having to mop up water blown in by storms because of old windows having been removed. And he was a cook at the beginning when the seminary opened in October, 1957. Another member during the winter shoveled coal in the stoker of the seminary furnace. The Institute was discontinued in the 1960s.
Msgr. McCorkle’s 52 years as a priest, except for a brief 2 years, have been spent in Hannibal, where he is presently living in retirement since 2002 at 109 Shepherd Drive.
His various assignments as assistant pastor, hospital chaplain, spiritual director and teacher at McCooey High School, administrator of Holy Cross Parish at Ilasco, and procurator, spiritual director and teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary often overlapped.
The following outline gives the particular tenures of those ministries. Immaculate Conception Parish—Hannibal: 1953-56. McCooey High School—Hannibal: 1953-58. St. Elizabeth Hospital—Hannibal (later Hannibal Regional Hospital): 1956-58, 1959-60, 1963-64, 1970-2002. Holy Cross—Ilasco: 1958-60, 1970-96. St. Thomas Seminary—Hannibal: 1957-68, 1970-2002.
Msgr. Louis McCorkle has particularly enjoyed working at St. Thomas Seminary and teaching and befriending the many students who passed through its doors. Its closing under the cloud of the sexual abuse scandals by priests in the U.S. was without doubt the greatest distress of his life. He also enjoyed being associated with the many good priests he has known and with whom he has worked. His familiar artistic creations adorn many a home of friends and former students. He has truly made an imprint on the lives of hundreds of former seminarians and will forever be known and loved as “Father Founder” and “Uncle Lou.”