Obituary: John T. Coskran, Catholic Charities executive who nurtured volunteers

Throughout his working life, John Coskran was dedicated to helping people. But this was far from scripted.

"He said he fell into his careers," said daughter, Molly Coskran. "But he didn't talk about it, or the war or the old stuff."

Coskran surmises that her father's compassion for the poor and the challenged might have been influenced by growing up during the Depression. As the son of a police officer in south Minneapolis, his family had what they needed, but he came face-to-face with hardship when families passed through the alleys, begging.

"He had a compassion for the poor," Molly Coskran said.

Coskran, former associate director of Catholic Charities and a longtime Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school board member, died Oct. 16 in Burnsville. He was 91.

Indeed, Coskran's career path didn't follow a straight line. His college plans were interrupted by the war when he was drafted into the Navy, but he eventually finished his degree at the University of St. Thomas in 1947. He worked for several years in Japan and in Germany, where he helped relocate war refugees through the National Catholic Welfare Conference War Relief Services. And when he returned to the United States he held several jobs as a county social worker.

Those experiences helped him land a job at Catholic Charities where he worked 34 years as associate director before retiring in 1993. During his tenure he was a respected executive who helped shepherd the organization through major changes, including a merger. But he was best known for being an advocate for volunteerism. In the mid-1960s the organization had fewer than a dozen volunteers but more than 8,500 by 1993. He helped create a central volunteer office and put volunteer coordinators in each division.

"He said you need to treat them with respect and give them something meaningful to do and not waste their time," she said.

The Rev. Larry Snyder, now president of Catholics Charities USA, credits Coskran with helping to cultivate the organization's national reputation. "The agency was viewed as being cutting edge, and it paved the way for others," he said. "He was very insightful.

Coskran also helped start a groundbreaking program for poor women and children "at a time when most other people weren't really looking at the economic impact of poverty on women," said Snyder.

He parlayed his passion for volunteering into other efforts. He ran for school board election in 1979 and served until 2002.

"He believed there was no transparency on the board … and that people should know what's going on," his daughter said. In 2001, the Board of Education recommended the creation of the John Coskran Volunteer Awards to honor his efforts to expand the volunteer program within District 191.

Coskran loved to ski, and he did that until he broke a leg when he was in his 80s. He also loved to fish, and for decades went to the same remote island near the Canadian border twice a year with a group of friends.

His wife of more than 55 years died in early September. When he died six weeks later, there were no signs of illness. "His compass was gone, so he decided he was done, too," his daughter said.