Father Roger Coughlin, 84, the associate administrator at Catholic Charities for nearly four decades, died April 15, at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago of congestive heart failure. At the time of his death, he was living in the St. Vincent Center on North LaSalle Street, now the main office of Catholic Charities in Chicago, and was still active on a part-time basis in the work of Catholic Charities. Born in Chicago, Father Coughlin graduated from Little Flower School, Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, and the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. He studied psychology and counseling at Loyola University graduate school, and earned his master’s degree at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. He was ordained in 1951 and served as associate pastor of Our Lady of the Angels Parish until 1956. He then began his long career with Catholic Charities that included, during his first 16 years there, serving as chaplain to the sisters, staff and residents at St. Vincent Hospital and Infant Home at 721 N. LaSalle St. At Catholic Charities, Father Coughlin worked with the Foster Care and Adoption Services, served as director of Family, Aged and Community Services, established Research Services, and recruited social workers from graduate schools around the country. He initiated and was especially identified with many special programs at Catholic Charities: Adoptive Parent Clubs, the Head Start program, the Cuban Refugee Children Program in the 1960s, and the Vietnamese Refugee Services in the 1970s. He oversaw the organization of more than 200 parish Senior Citizen Clubs, and found and furnished homes for reunited Cuban refugee families. In 2006, Catholic Charities Board of Advisors presented the priest with its Caritas Christi Urget Nos (“The Love of Christ Impels Us”) Award for his dedication to serving the poor. A writer as well as an organizer and administrator, Father Coughlin has in recent years written “Words for the Spirit,” a monthly column in Catholic Charities’ Keenager News. Father Coughlin researched and wrote two works about the local Catholic Charities: “Caritas Christi Urget Nos: Institutional History of the Archdiocese of Chicago,” and “The Story of Charitable Care in the Archdiocese of Chicago: 1844- 1997” (published 1999). He updated that history in 2009 with his personal accounting of the time in Catholic Charities from 1950 with “The Story of Charitable Care in the Archdiocese of Chicago: 1950-2007.”