same year, in addition to his duties as an auxiliary bishop, he was appointed pastor of Holy Angels Parish in Chicago. He became known as the "Father of the Yards" for his charitable work among the poor in the tenement areas around the Union Stock Yards. One of his assistants at Holy Angels was Father William Richard Griffin, who would again serve with McGavick as auxiliary bishop of La Crosse (1935–1944). In 1915, Archbishop George Mundelein appointed McGavick to be spiritual director of the Holy Name Society in the archdiocese. He organized Holy Name societies in almost every parish over the next six years, growing the number of branches from 33 to 200. As part of this work, he also established many branches of the Big Brother program in the archdiocese to help juvenile delinquents. McGavick was an outspoken supporter of Prohibition and condemned Chicago Alderman Milton J. Foreman for his support of saloons. Bishop of La Crosse Pope Pius XI appointed McGavick to succeed the late James Schwebach as the fourth Bishop of La Crosse, Wisconsin, on November 21, 1921. By that time, McGavick was regarded as "the best pulpit orator of the Roman Catholic clergy" in Chicago. He was installed at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph the Workman in La Crosse on March 21, 1922. During McGavick's tenure as Bishop of La Crosse, the diocese's Catholic population grew from 116,000 to 140,000. When he first arrived, there were 156 parishes, 78 mission churches, 90 parochial schools, and 189 secular priests with 51 religious. By his first 20 years, he had established more than 20 parishes and 41 schools. One of his proudest accomplishments was founding Aquinas High School in La Crosse in 1928, a regional coeducational school to which several parishes sent their students. In 1937 McGavick celebrated the golden jubilee of his ordination as a priest. That same year, Pius XI named him an assistant to the papal throne. After his auxiliary, Bishop Griffin, died in 1944, McGavick received Bishop John Treacy as his coadjutor bishop with right of succession in 1945. Death and legacy Alexander McGavick died at La Crosse on August 25, 1948, at age 85. At the time of his death, he was the oldest Catholic bishop in the United States. In an editorial following his death, the La Crosse Tribune wrote, "For 24 years Bishop McGavick ably administered affairs of the diocese, he