Father Daniel McLearen is back as pastor at St. Margaret Church after a three-year assignment in Hartford. His return highlights the unconventional path in which he came to his profession. Father Dan, as he’s known to his parishioners, says his return to Madison is a culmination of a long series of events and choices that stretch back to his childhood.

He says he grew up in Virginia Beach where his life centered around the beach and, despite the transient nature of a military town, a deeply rooted and stable family.

“It was a wonderful place to grow up. I was a lifeguard for seven summers on the beach, and a great way to explore life, says Dan. “It was an interesting place because it was a military town, and so there was a lot of in and out with people moving all the time. I kind of had the best of both worlds; every fall when we went back to school, there were new people to meet, but [I] had the stability of my family and being in the same place.”

Dan’s calling was initially in a completely different arena. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a geology degree and from Florida Atlantic University with a degree in ocean engineering. His career in engineering was a challenging and satisfying one, says Dan.

“I worked as a petroleum engineer for seven years in the Gulf of Mexico. I loved my job and worked out of New Orleans, which was my home base. I was four years as a field engineer going out offshore. It was a great company to work for. I was able to travel and experience so many different things,” Dan says. “The last three years I was there, I worked in a liaison position between the field engineers and the clients. I had several large oil companies I was responsible for.”

Dan was well into that career in the petroleum industry, working on oil rigs and flying around the country, when he was offered an important promotion. He asked his employer if he could take some personal time before making his decision.

That time off involved a bike ride along a large section of the Pacific Coast Highway through three states with one of his supervisors and a friend. During this trip, he gradually began to hear the calling to the cloth, says Dan.

“I took some time off to kind of think about where I wanted to see myself five to ten years down the road,” Father Dan says. “I went on this long bicycle trip from Seattle to San Francisco, and it was just a beautiful place to actually see and to think.”

Dan says that the more he pedaled, the more he began to realize that despite his love of engineering and the life it afforded, there was something else he needed to do.

“The person who kept coming to mind was my parish priest. I had never, ever considered the vocation before. I was always the left-hand side brain of math and science,” says Dan. “My parish priest was someone who really made a difference in people’s lives. He obviously loved what he did. He was such a role model for me. So, when I got back from that trip, I went and talked to my parish priest. I figured I was too old by then; I was 29, but he said, no, there are a lot of guys who’ve had a career before they make that kind of decision, and in some ways, you bring a little of life’s maturity to what you are going to do.”

Dan had to go back to school and hit the books just as hard as he had when studying to be an engineer. The seminary further impressed on him the responsibility of his choice.

“I had to basically start my education all over again. I had no theology or philosophy as an engineer, so I had five years of seminary that I had to go back and undertake and then a year as a transitional deacon before my first assignment as a parish priest. It was a completely different education. I really had to retool my brain,” says Dan. “Because in engineering and science, you have a problem, you solve it, and you move on. In the seminary, you learn a topic, and the more questions you have. It’s like walking on concrete blocks into a big pile of fluff. It certainly was a very different kind of education. I think the biggest difference is that before, in my career, it was what is going to further my life, my career, what is going to set me up for a better position, but in this, it’s not about me at all. It’s about what I can offer for somebody else.”

Dan says despite his talents in engineering, he has never regretted his decision.

“(E)ach step of the way, I knew I was making the right choice. I loved what I did before, I loved the people I worked with, but this was the right fit for me,” says Dan. “I’ve been so very grateful for everything I’ve had in life. I had a wonderful family to be brought up in… I have always been grateful for that and for the opportunities that have been placed before me to give back.”

Dan adds, “I had never thought of it before, and I was just looking at where I saw my life going at that point. St. Paul got knocked off his horse when he changed his vision, and I kind of got knocked off my bike in the same way. But I have no regrets that this is what I need to do. It is a wonderful way to live a life. Despite all that is going on in the world, it’s amazing, it’s miraculous that people still have so much trust in this (pointing to his collar) and in us. The place that we are invited into people’s lives is just humbling. It is wonderful.”

One of Dan’s first assignments was in a heavily Italian congregation in Waterbury, where he was bestowed the moniker of “Father Dan,” which has stayed with him through his mission. He was pastor at St. Francis Church in New Haven for more than a decade and at St. Margaret for six years before his three years at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford and his return to Madison.

Dan says the differences in ministering in a large city versus a small town are apparent, but the similarities are stronger than most would think.

“If I had my choice, I probably would not have chosen St. Francis, but I could not have gone to a better place to learn what it means to be a pastor. We had no money…and it was in a tough, tough neighborhood,” recalls Father Dan. “The area has witnessed numerous waves of immigration, so the population of that church was very diverse. I had a great cross-section of all people. My next assignment was here, and we had a great connection because St. Margaret made all sorts of donations to Life Haven (A Women and families outreach program administered by St. Francis Church). And we only increased that connection when I came here to St. Margaret. There are all kinds of needs, and they are very different, and yet in many ways, also very similar. There are family issues; in New Haven, there is certainly a lot of troubled families in crisis and a lot of drug issues. Working in an inner city is certainly different than working in Madison. But folks here have difficulties. They have needs too, just different kinds of needs.”