Father William Richard Byrnes died in Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on November 18, 1978, three weeks after being admitted to the hospital for emergency treatment of severe internal bleeding. Following services at St. Pius V Church in Chicago, he was buried in All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Illinois, on November 21.

William Daly Xavier Byrnes was born in Chicago on September 28, 1903 and attended Visitation elementary school in Chicago. His program of secondary education began at Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, continued at St. Viator High School in Bourbonnais, Illinois, and was completed at Visitation High School in Chicago. Following two years of study at Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island, he entered the Dominican novitiate at St. Joseph Priory in Somerset, Ohio, in 1923 and made his first profession on September 23, 1924. After taking philosophical studies at St. Rose Priory in Springfield, Kentucky, and at the new House of Studies in River Forest, Illinois, Brother Richard Byrnes continued studies in theology at the House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where he was ordained to the priesthood on June 16, 1930.

Father Byrnes was first assigned to St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in New York City as an associate pastor. Subsequent assignments as an associate took him to St. Dominic in Denver, Colorado; St. Catherine of Siena in New York City; Holy Rosary in Minneapolis, Minnesota; St. Peter in Memphis, Tennessee; St. Dominic in Youngstown, Ohio; Holy Name in Kansas City, Missouri; and Blessed Sacrament in Madison, Wisconsin.

In 1946, Father Byrnes was named community business manager and Director of Cooperator Brothers at the Dominican House of Studies in River Forest. In 1949, he returned to Holy Name Parish in Kansas City until 1951 when he was appointed community business manager at St. Pius V Priory in Chicago. From 1953 to 1956 he served as pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. After a year assisting at Blessed Martin Mission in Amarillo, Texas, Father Byrnes returned to Holy Rosary Parish in Minneapolis as an associate pastor for ten

After two years with the novitiate community at St. Peter Martyr Priory in Winona, Minnesota, Father Byrnes returned to Chicago to reside at St. Pius V Priory. Except for one year spent with the community at St. Dominic's House on Euclid Avenue in Chicago, Father Byrnes continued in residence at St. Pius V Priory until 1975 when his need for special nursing care took him to Marian Manor in Lebanon, Kentucky, and Little Company of Mary Health Facility in San Pierre, Indiana, where he lived until the time of his last illness.