Fr. Brennan was born and raised in New Rochelle, NY, where he attended Blessed Sacrament Grammar and High Schools, graduating in 1966. He studied at Holy Apostles Seminary in Derby, New York for a year and a half before entering the US Army. During his three-year enlistment, he spent a year in Vietnam and another in Hawaii. Following discharge from active service, he worked as an executive assistant to the Director of Fleet Operations for a nation-wide moving and storage company before re-entering the seminary in 1972. During his seminary summers, he worked as a Westchester County Special Police Officer stationed at Playland. He graduated from Immaculate Conception Seminary in 1975 with a BA in Psychology, and completed his theological studies at St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie). Following his 1979 priesthood ordination by Terence Cardinal Cooke, he served two years at Holy Child Parish on Staten Island before being transferred to St. Joseph’s in Croton Falls. He taught at Kennedy High School in Somers for several years before returning to parish work at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in his home town of New Rochelle, during which time he also served as the Catholic Chaplain of the NYPD. After four years there he was assigned to St. Patrick’s Cathedral where he served nine years as the Vice-Rector of the Cathedral and Master of Ceremonies. He returned to ‘the north country’ in 1999 when he was appointed pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Mahopac, NY. Following the completion of his pastorate there, he came to us here at Holy Name of Mary on July 1, 2011.