Kilcoyne was born in
Lawrence in the state of
Massachusetts, to Mr. and Mrs. P. H. Kilcoyne. He attended
Hunter College (bachelor's degree),
Boston College,
Columbia University, and
New York University, where he earned a Ph.D. Starting in 1969, Kilcoyne was chairman of the Board of Trustees of
St. Francis College in Brooklyn. He was on the
New York City Board of Higher Education, but he resigned in 1976 because he was against the proposed imposition of tuition at colleges in the City University. He was consecrated a
Roman Catholic priest at
St. James Cathedral in October 1980, when he was 78 years old, a year after his spouse, Eleanor Marie Dunn Kilcoyne, died; with her he had a son, Francis P. Kilcoyne Jr. He lived in Brooklyn. Kilcoyne died at
a hospital in Brooklyn in 1985 at the age of 82 years old. When he died he was a
parochial vicar at a Brooklyn church. == References ==