Bernard M. (Mike) Shanley passed away in Nazareth, PA on March 5, 2016, at age 90, of complications from squamous cell skin cancer. He is survived by his beloved wife of 43 years, Ann Linderman Shanley.

Shanley was born in New York City, the eldest son of Anne and Bernard Shanley  and spent his first 35 years in Roslyn, NY. His family had a summer house in the Poconos in a Fishing Preserve called Blooming Grove, where he learned to fish and canoe. He wrote several short stories, and a moving memoir of his upbringing between the wars and his quest for spiritual understanding.

He was predeceased by his sister Nancy Gallagher, brothers Jim and John, and a nephew, Jay Gallagher.

His grandchildren adored him and affectionately referred to him as “Gramps”; they loved to go fishing with him, or make a run to get ice cream cones. They presented him with interesting hats throughout their childhood; he wore every single one of them.

Shanley attended Portsmouth Priory School, and was accepted at Princeton University at age 16. He joined the U.S. Army in February 1944, where he served in the infantry in Europe and military police in Japan until 1946. He earned a Combat Infantryman’s badge and was honorably discharged from the 2nd Battalion, 387th Infantry, as a Sergeant.

He graduated from Princeton in 1948 with a B.A. in Political Science, and attended Fordham University Law School for a year and a half. He worked for Phelps Dodge International Corporation in the 1950’s, traveling all over the world. In 1960 he entered a Catholic religious order, the Discalced Carmelites, and eventually earned a Masters degree in Philosophy from the Carmelite College in Washington D.C. He left the Order in 1968 as an ordained deacon, fully dispensed.

Shanley met his wife in 1972, and they became lifelong soul mates, rarely apart. They visited Bay Head, New Jersey every summer until recently, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, every September. Shanley worked as a house restorer, ran a retail business called the Gourmet Gardener with his wife, and then starting in 1977 was an addictions therapist at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg, NJ. Shanley moved to Nazareth with his wife in 1987.

A lifelong Friend of Bill’s, Shanley was devoted to helping addicts recover, and often took calls late at night to talk people through a bad time. He was Director of the Hospital’s Alcohol/Drug Recovery Center from 1985-1995, and retired after 25 years in 2002.

He and his wife travelled throughout Morocco in 1999 and to France and England in 2003, visiting family posted abroad.

Survivors:  Shanley is survived by step-children Michael Brown (Phyllis Clark) of New York City and Saugerties, and Eden Brown (Cal Thomas) of Arlington, Virginia, and by four granddaughters, Sarah, Jenny, Jessica, and Elizabeth, as well as one grandson, Youssef. He had fourteen nephews and nieces, and four great-granddaughters, Charlotte, Delilah, Aya, and Nora.

Service: A Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Wednesday March 9, 2016 at 10 AM at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 3219 Santee Road Bethlehem, PA. Funeral arrangements are by the John F. Herron funeral Home and Herron Crematory in Bethlehem.

Contributions:  The family welcomes donations in lieu of flowers to Safe Harbor Easton, 536 Bushkill Drive, Easton, PA 18042, at 610-258-5540.