Deceased: 2009-02-10
Diocese: DUBUQUE
Seminary Graduation Year: 1958
Monsignor Neil Tobin, Ph.D. 76, a retired priest of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, living at 3580 Pennsylvania Ave., entered eternal life at 6:50 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009, at Bethany Home.
Services will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, at St. Columbkille’s Catholic Church, Dubuque, with the Most Rev. Jerome Hanus, OSB, officiating and the Rev. Ivan R. Nienhaus as homilist. Private burial of his cremated remains will be in Calvary Cemetery, Cascade, Iowa, at a later date. Friends may call after 9 a.m. Saturday at the church. The Leonard Funeral Home and Crematory, 2595 Rockdale Road, is in charge of arrangements.
He was born on July 14, 1932, in Worthington, and raised in Cascade, as the only child of Fred and Eleanor (Welter) Tobin. He had a bachelor of arts degree in classics from Loras College, ST.B. and S.T.L. in theology, from Gregorian University, Rome, and a masters of art and doctor of philosophy in classics from Fordham University, N.Y. His spiritual formation was at the North American College in Rome, where he was ordained to the priesthood on Dec. 15, 1957, in the Seminary Chapel of the Immaculate Conception by Archbishop Martin J. O’Connor, Rector. He also did sabbatical study at Notre Dame University.
In his collegiate ministry, Monsignor Tobin was president of Belmont Abbey College, a Benedictine liberal arts college in North Carolina. Prior to that he was on the faculty of Loras College for 17 years, where he was professor of classics, academic dean and vice president for academic affairs.
His parish ministry was in Cedar Rapids (St. Patrick), New Vienna, Fleetwood (New York), St. Donatus, Dubuque (Sacred Heart and Nativity), and Monticello (Sacred Heart and Immaculate Conception). He also was chaplain to the retired Sisters of Mercy at McAuley Center in Dubuque, pastoral coordinator of Wahlert High School in Dubuque, and Vicar Forane for both the Dubuque and Dyersville Deaneries.
His special recognitions included being named a Prelate of Honor in 1991 by Pope John Paul II, being commissioned a Kentucky Colonel in 1982 by Governor John V. Brown Jr. and receiving an honorary doctorate from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1974.
Some of the major boards on which he served included the Archdiocesan Priests’ Council, Archdiocesan Building Commission, Archdiocesan Investment Committee, St. Raphael Priest Fund Society and Pension Plan, including its capital campaign, A Time To Remember, the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, Hospice of Dubuque, Wahlert High School, Mount Calvary Cemetery of Dubuque, Bethany Home of Dubuque, National Board of Worldwide Marriage Encounter, Delta Epsilon Sigma Scholastic Society, National Catholic Educational Association (College and University Department) and State of Iowa Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Certification.
Surviving are cousins and friends.
He was preceded in death by his father in 1946; his mother in 2006; his paternal grandparents, Tom and Mary Tobin; his maternal grandparents, Henry and Margaret Welter; and his godparents, Joe Tobin and Carrie Hosch.
