John (Eoin) McKiernan Papers

John Thomas McKiernan was born in New York City on May 10, 1915. Early in his life he adopted the use of Eoin, the old Irish form, as his name. He recieved his AB in English and Classical Languages from St. Joseph College (NY) in 1948, his EdM in Education and Psychology from the University of New Hampshire in 1951 and his PhD in American Literature and Psychology from Pennsylvania State University in 1957.

He taught secondary school in Pittsfield, NY (1947 - 1949) and at SUNY-Geneseo (1949 - 1959) before being appointed to the English faculty at the College of St. Thomas in 1959. His passion for Irish culture lead to the establishment of the Irish American Cultural Institute (IACI) at the College of St. Thomas in 1964. He resigned from the English department until 1972 to devote his full attention to the IACI. While he officially retired from the IACI in the mid-1980s, McKiernan remaned active in matters of Irish and Irish American interest until his death on July 18, 2004 in St. Paul, MN.