John Mahoney

A member of the "Greatest Generation," John Mahoney was born in 1917, the year that the United States entered World War I. His childhood took place during the "Roaring Twenties," and his adolescence coincided with the Great Depression. While growing up, he became an amateur photographer, an avid reader, and a lover of music and nature. Just before the U.S. entered World War II, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. After field artillery training on the West Coast, he was stationed in Queensland,...See more

A member of the "Greatest Generation," John Mahoney was born in 1917, the year that the United States entered World War I. His childhood took place during the "Roaring Twenties," and his adolescence coincided with the Great Depression. While growing up, he became an amateur photographer, an avid reader, and a lover of music and nature. Just before the U.S. entered World War II, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. After field artillery training on the West Coast, he was stationed in Queensland, Australia, where he found a home-away-from-home. From 1942 to 1945, John served in two campaigns, one on Biak Island in New Guinea, and one on the Zamboanga Peninsula of Mindanao Island in the Philippines. Upon his return from the service, the G.I. bill permitted John to enroll at the Catholic University of America, where he met his wife-to-be, graduate nurse Attracta O'Connor, whom he married in 1949. The two were married for fifty years, until Attracta's death in 1999. See less