On July 24, 2008, the Rev. Martin Francis G. McCormick, O.P., died from cancer. Father McCormick was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, on May 3, 1926, the son of late Frank and Loretta Mansfield McCormick. He is survived by his brother James and sister Regina. He was preceded in death by his sisters Loretta and Dorothy. During the Second World War, he served in the Marine Corps in the Pacific war zone. After the war he took advantage of the GI Bill to pursue studies at St. Peter's College in Jersey City, NJ in social sciences and at Fordham University in the Bronx. As he discerned his Dominican vocation, he studied one year at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa to improve his Latin skills.

Francis McCormick entered the novitiate at Saint Peter Martyr Priory in Winona, Minnesota where he was given the name Martin, who would later be known simply as Marty. He made his religious profession as a Dominican Friar on August 31, 1955 and was ordained June 3, 1961. During his ministry as a Dominican he taught at Fenwick High School, was a hospital chaplain and the chaplain to the Dominican Nuns in Farmington Hills, Michigan for nine years. He was noted for his work with those who suffer from alcohol addiction. The Office of the Dead and the Mass of Christian Burial were celebrated at Saint Pius V Church in Chicago, IL and he was buried at All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Illinois.