KNIGHT LIFE

When Richard Harrigan had found out he had won the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Distinguished Secondary School Teacher Award, the Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School teacher was in his own words “blown away by it.”

But it was something that happened at the school the day after Harrigan won the award, that touched him even more. Harrigan and his wife, Elissa, a music teacher at NDBG, were alternating days at school because their son, Gerry, had to quarantine due to contact tracing at his school, St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish School.

“My students and a group of teachers here had created for my son, who has stuck at home, a notebook full of fun activities and drawings and things to cheer him up,” Harrigan said. “My students didn’t have to do that. They did that because they care about me and they know my son and care about him as well. And that just blew me away. As I said to people, I am so gratified to be receiving this award, but it’s easy to be recognized as a great teacher when I have great students.”

For all his modesty, the description of the award — which honors a Catholic school teacher who has promoted a school’s Catholic educational vision and who has a strong awareness of a school’s Catholic identity and mission. The teacher is one who has demonstrated excellence in teaching skills and has a positive effect on the moral growth of students — describes Harrigan himself. He combines his love for education and the school with his Catholic faith which makes his job more than just a job.

“I definitely believe that what I am doing here is my vocation,” said Harrigan, who will receive his award at the Catholic Schools Week Mass on Feb. 5 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany. “I definitely feel I am able to serve my students in a way that is perhaps more unfettered than it might be elsewhere. And I love that. I love that I get to feel that I live and work in a living, breathing community. I love that we can openly talk about our faith in the classroom. We pray together and that prayer brings us closer together.”

Service is something that Harrigan does in all of his many and varied jobs which include: social studies department chair, social studies teacher, assistant athletic director, director of technology, part of the campus ministry team and, along with his wife, he provides the music for liturgies and prayer services.

“I love this community. I love the students and I want to do everything I can to give them the best experience possible and that’s why I am always happy to take more on,” said Harrigan, whose only full-time teaching job has been at NDBG. “The Diocese has been very supportive of me, not only as a professional, but also growing up. I am so happy to give back.”
Of all of his jobs at NDBG, it is that of social studies teacher and now social studies department chair that Harrigan was made for.

“I always wanted to be a social studies teacher,” said Harrigan, 38, who grew up in Rotterdam and was heavily involved with St. Gabriel the Archangel Church when Father Leo Markert was pastor. “I am doing exactly what I had hoped I would be doing in life.”

He credits his parents for his life of faith and his love of social sciences and history.

“They are pretty voracious readers and I kind of picked up on that,” said Harrigan, who majored in education at SUNY Oneonta and got a masters in history from the University at Albany. “Watching the news as a family was always an important dinner-time ritual so I became really interested in current events and just how we got here. I was always really encouraged by my family to find answers in the past when I could.”

And he does the same with his students in trying to find historical parallels to what has gone on in this country, particularly, in the last month.

“We have to look at history, at what came before, to truly understand what various events will mean to us moving forward and that is vitally important,” Harrigan said. “You have to contextualize everything and history is an important way to do that. Also civics education is very important especially in today’s day and age. You can believe in whatever ideology that you want but you need to understand the way the game is played. That’s really what I have been emphasizing in my political science courses.”

And as for the assault on the U.S. Capitol, Harrigan adds, “It’s the Ben Franklin quote from when the Declaration was signed. The urban legend is that Franklin was asked, ‘What do we got?’ and he famously said, ‘A republic if you can keep it.’ That quote has definitely been rolling around in my mind since the incident on Jan. 6.”

As director of technology, another thing that kept him up late was the change to remote learning because of the pandemic.

“It was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life,” he said. “My worse fear was letting anyone down in our community. I wasn’t looking at it as a teacher, I was looking at it more globally within our community. We had to create a plan very quickly for teachers, students and families to follow, understand and work with and we were able to pull it off and that was a wonderful thing. But my biggest worry was always I didn’t want to let anyone down. I didn’t want to let down a family, I didn’t want to let down our faculty and staff, and I didn’t want to let down the kids, most importantly.”

In his 14 years at NDBG, that is something that rarely has happened to Harrigan, who doesn’t plan on leaving any time soon.

“I have had opportunities to leave and ultimately decided against it,” he said. “And I was appointed this year (as) the department chair for social studies which had been a professional goal of mine since I started out. I feel personally and professionally satisfied here. This community means so much to me I don’t know if I could stand going anywhere else.”