John Monagan - John Tracy Ellis Collection

John Tracy Ellis (July 30, 1905 – October 16, 1992) was a Catholic Church historian, born and raised in Seneca, Illinois, USA. Ellis was ordained a priest and received a doctorate in history from Catholic University in Washington, where he worked with Msgr. Peter Guilday to collect the central documents of the American Catholic heritage. He spent most of his career as a faculty member of the Catholic University, but taught at the University of San Francisco between 1963 and 1976. He was a long-serving executive secretary of the American Catholic Historical Association and editor of the Catholic Historical Review (1941–62). Ellis is best known for his 1952 argument that American Catholic scholars have failed to measure up to European Catholic standards of scholarship and intellectual leadership. Source: Wikipedia

John Knox (1907-1997) was educated at Oak Park High School in Illinois; the University of Chicago (Ph.D. 1930); Northwestern University School of Law (J.D. 1934); and the Harvard Law School (LL.M. 1936). He served as law clerk and personal secretary to Justice James Clark McReynolds during the October 1936 term of the United States Supreme Court. Later, as an attorney in Illinois, Knox represented Allstate Insurance Company, the largest subsidiary of Sears, Roebuck and Company. Knox retired from the law in 1973. He was a member of the Bars of Illinois, New York, and of the Supreme Court of the United States.

John Stephen Monagan was born December 23, 1911, in Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut. He received his early education at Driggs, St. Mary's and Crosby high schools in Waterbury; a Bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1933; and later attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1937.

In 1938 he was admitted to the Connecticut bar and commenced practice in his home town of Waterbury the same year. Monagan held numerous significant business and political positions including president of the Waterbury Board of Aldermen, 1940 to 1943; mayor of Waterbury, 1943 to 1948; member of the board of directors of the Waterbury Savings Bank; delegate at the Democratic National Conventions, 1944, 1948, 1960, 1964, and 1968. He was for many years a congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives (D-Conn.) and was elected to the 86th and to the six succeeding congresses (January 3, 1959 to January 3, 1973). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1972 to the Ninety-third Congress.

An accomplished writer, Monagan's published work incudes "Behind the Iron Curtain and in Selected Countries of Western Europe" (U.S. Congress House Committee on Foreign Affairs, 1963); "Horace: Priest of the Poor" (1985); "The Grand Panjandrum: Mellow Year of Justice Holmes" (1988); "From Green Road to Cracker Hill, Waterbury Memories with John Monagan" (videotaped lecture given in Waterbury, Connecticut, 1991); "One Man's View of Bauby's Corner" (1994); and "The Master and the Congressman" (2003).

John Monagan died October 23, 2005. He was married to Rosemary Brady Monagan and had five children.