FATHER FRANCIS P. DUFFY

Father Francis Patrick Duffy (1862-1932), the namesake of Father Duffy Square, left his parish in the Bronx to serve in Europe during World War I as the regimental chaplain of the 69th New York Infantry, famously known as the "Fighting 69th." The poet Joyce Kilmer, writing about the division's voyage across the Atlantic, observed that soldiers, standing in a line "as long as the mess-line," waited their turn each day to have Duffy hear their confessions.

1941 A group of sailors in Times Square visit the statue of Father Duffy. Rodney McCay Morgan/New York City Parks Photo Archive

Lt. Colonel Duffy displayed legendary heroism on the fron lines, exposing himself to constant danger while ministering to soldiers during extremely intense fighting. After the war, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and returned to New York City to continue his community work, this time as a pastor of the Holy Cross Church on 42nd Street. Father Duffy died on June 26. 1932, after serving the theater district community for over a decade.

On May 2, 1937 - Father Duffy's birthday - Myaor Fiorello LaGuardia unveiled Father Duffy's statue and dedicated the Square. Distinguished representatives of the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish clergy all spoke at the dedication. In 1940, Father Duffy's story was memorialized in the classic James Cagney film "The Fighting 69th," in which Pat O'Brien portrayed the famed chaplain; coincidentally, Cagney also portrayed George M. Cohan, whose statue also stands in the Square, in Yankee Doodle Dandy two years later.

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