Jack Corcoran dead at 82; retired history teacher and union organizer

Jack Corcoran lost the love of his life in 1992 when his wife, Peggyann, died suddenly, leaving him to finish raising their two daughters alone.

Despite a broken heart, the single dad was on a mission when he marched into a Long Island salon a couple of weeks later.

Corcoran’s youngest daughter, Lauren, then 16, had dissolved into tears after realizing her mom would never braid her hair again.

“He went there and he learned how to braid,” Lauren Corcoran-Doolin recalled, a memory she said epitomized her father’s devotion to family and how his heart “was just truly so big.”

The Bellmore resident died April 4 in the home he shared with Corcoran-Doolin, his son-in-law Kevin Doolin and his 14-year-old grandson Finnegan. He was 82 and recently had battled an infection.

The native of Woodside, Queens, was a retired history teacher, an ex-union organizer who believed in trumpeting the causes of “the working person,” a former Catholic brother and a devoted fan of the Giants and Yankees, his youngest daughter said.

Later in life, he suffered from congestive heart failure and diabetes, but never let those health challenges quash his independent spirit and passion for travel, said Corcoran-Doolin, 44.

Corcoran went on more than 90 cruises in his lifetime, amassing an impressive collection of Hawaiian print shirts along the way that complemented his “larger than life” personality, his family said.

“He never needed to be noticed but he was instantly noticed because he had this loud voice and loud shirt,” said his oldest daughter, Kimberly Corcoran-Galante, 48, of Mineola.

She said her father continued to wear his wedding ring — a maternal family heirloom — for years after his wife’s death.

But about a dozen years ago, Corcoran took off the plain gold band after he heard his oldest daughter’s future groom was struggling to find a ring ahead of their wedding — and passed it down to him.

The ring didn't even need to be resized and still bore the inscription "To Jack Love Peggy," from Corcoran's late wife, Corcoran-Galante said.

Born in 1937, John William Corcoran’s father hailed from Queens and his mother was from Ireland.

He went to high school at La Salle Academy in Manhattan before earning an undergraduate degree at Marist College and a master’s degree at St. John’s University.

While at Marist, he joined the Catholic brotherhood before leaving the religious order behind years later after realizing he wanted a family, Corcoran-Doolin said.

But Corcoran continued to pursue his teaching vocation in Catholic schools, including at Christ the King High School in Middle Village, Queens. That was where he met Peggyann Dean, a fellow teacher, before they married in 1970.

In the early 1980s, Corcoran organized a union for the school’s teachers and even led two strikes because he “believed that collective bargaining would get them a living wage,” Corcoran-Doolin said.

After refusing to cross a picket line, the couple left those jobs behind before Jack Corcoran took a position in financial planning and insurance sales, his youngest daughter said.

He returned to teaching and spent several years as a history teacher at a New York City public high school.

Corcoran’s other survivors include son-in-law Joseph Galante and granddaughters Riley Ann, 10, and Ashlyn, 7.

His family buried Corcoran at Commack Cemetery during a private service on April 10, a few weeks before what would have been the 50th anniversary of his and his late wife’s wedding.

“He got to heaven in time to dance with her,” Corcoran-Doolin said.