Bishop Thomas V. Daily was born on September 23, 1927, in Belmont, Mass.; ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston on January 10, 1952; and ordained a bishop on February 11, 1975. He was appointed as the first Bishop of the new Diocese of Palm Beach in 1984 and served in that role until his appointment as Bishop of Brooklyn in 1990. Bishop Daily announced his retirement in 2003 and remained as Bishop Emeritus until his passing on May 15, 2017.
In an announcement to the Diocese of Brooklyn, Most Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio, Ph.D., D.D., Bishop of Brooklyn, said, “Bishop Daily was a man who personified the Second Vatican Council’s call for a preferential option for the poor. He ministered to indigenous people amidst poverty in Peru, women in crisis pregnancies, as well as new and often poor immigrants living in Brooklyn. He never acted out of malice or to further his own self-interest. At heart, he was a missionary.”
It was during Bishop Daily's tenure as Bishop of Brooklyn that St. Edmund Prep underwent significant organizational change and growth. In September of 1994 Bishop Daily approved St. Edmund's plan to become an independent co-educational institution run by a Board of Trustees dedicated to preparing boys and girls for entrance to college. The proposal to enroll boys was made to the Bishop in response to an increasing number of inquiries in recent years from parents who sought a Catholic High School to serve boys from parishes in South Brooklyn.