[6] In 1934, O’Grady helped to found Catholic University’s School of Social Work and served as its dean from 1934 to 1938.
At the Review, O’Grady worked alongside John A. Ryan, who served as editor-in-chief and eventually contributing editor.
[16] Over the years, O’Grady developed strong relationships behind the scenes, becoming a resource for legislators such as Senator Robert F. Wagner (D-NY) and administrators such as Harry Hopkins and Aubrey Willis Williams.
It was in this position that O'Grady persuaded John A. Ryan to write the Bishop's Program on Social Reconstruction.
[18] O’Grady was vocally opposed to restrictive immigration reform laws that were proposed in the wake of World War II.
[22] In 1959, O’Grady was cited in a letter by Pope John XXIII for his “wise and zealous” direction of Caritas in Ghana and for his work “to foster a spirit of neighborliness and to promote the real welfare of the people.”[23] A Legal Minimum Wage.
(1933) O’Grady died from a kidney ailment on January 2, 1966, at Carroll Manor, a retirement home for clergy in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Archbishop Patrick O’Boyle celebrated a pontifical mass in O’Grady’s honor on January 5, 1966, at St. Mathew’s Cathedral in Washington well, DC.
Archbishop Boyle said in a tribute to O’Grady that “his influence on charitable work of the Church in this country and throughout the world for widespread social reform will long be remembered.
[24] There were several remembrances of O’Grady following his death, including a speech by then-Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, John William McCormack, who said: “We may well mourn that such a man has left us, but the occasion of his death is truly, in the long view, the occasion for rejoicing, both in the splendor of his Christian soul, and in the lasting benefits which his career has brought to our Nation [sic] and to the world.