Gregory McCann was born in 1935 in Jersey City, N.J. He was a member of Saint Aloysius Parish and entered Saint Peter’s College in 1952. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree on June 3, 1956 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve. The following November he entered the service and was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia for training. While there he developed a fatal illness and died tragically on May 13, 1957. He was 22 years of age.

A solemn high funeral Mass was celebrated for him on May16 at Saint Aloysius Church in Jersey City. He is buried in Saint Patrick’s Cemetery in Lowell, Massachusetts. Besides his parents who lived in Jersey City, he was survived by two brothers: John Peter McCann (b. 1925 d. 2011) who served in the United States Navy in World War II, and George Frederick McCann, Jr.