FLANAGAN, Edward Joseph (1886-1948), Father Flanagan was born in Ireland, and educated there and in Rome. He went to the U.S. in 1904 and was ordained a priest after completing his studies at the Jesuit University, Innsbruck, Austria, in 1912. In 1914, while serving as assistant pastor at Saint Patrick's Church, Omaha, Nebr., he established the Workingmen's Hotel as a refuge for destitute men. Three years later he turned to the work of youth rehabilitation, setting up the Home for Homeless Boys. It was eventually moved ten miles west of Omaha, and built a village for homeless boys and called it Boys Town.
He changed the way America thought of her troubled children in the 1920s, 30s, & 40s by pioneering alternative education (instead of prison), vocational training and self government. Father Flanagan's dream as grown over the years. Last year, Boys Town directly cared for more than 33,000 boys and girls at 18 sites in 15 states and the District of Columbia. Boys towns based on Father Flanagan's ideas have been opened in other countries around the world. 

On September 8, 1948 our council was rededicated to the principles of charity and faith in God and man which Father Flanagan practiced in his work at Boys Town. .