Daniel William McCarthy was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA on 5 April 1868. He was the son of Irish Roman Catholic immigrants Florence McCarthy and Mary Richardson. He had several siblings, including a sister who later took Holy Orders and became a nun. 

McCarthy took his vows as a priest in October 1895 and by 1910 was parish priest in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. 

Reverend McCarthy boarded Carpathia as a first cabin passenger; he was travelling to Europe with Rev Henry P. Burke.

Following the retrieval of survivors from the Titanic’s lifeboats, the two clergymen provided care and assistance and gave up their stateroom to some unfortunate survivors; both men made their beds on the floor of one of the saloons. 

In June 1913 Reverend McCarthy was appointed to the pastorate of St Aloysius Church on Barney Street in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where he went on to become a beloved fixture of the community for over three decades, during which time he oversaw the building of a new church. His last few years were plagued with ill health and in September 1945 he was forced resign as active pastor and become pastor emeritus.

Reverend McCarthy in later years
(Wilkes-Barre Record, 3 January 1946)

Following a fifty-year service in the priesthood, Reverend Daniel William McCarthy died on 2 January 1946 due to his chronic heart failure and a bout of pneumonia. He was buried in the priest’s plot in St Mary’s Cemetery in Hanover, Pennsylvania.