Reverend Monsignor Hugh J. Corrigan entered eternal life on September 7, 2025, at Calvary Hospital at the age of 86.

He entered eternal life in the Bronx, where he was born on December 24, 1938. He was raised by his Irish immigrant parents, Hugh Corrigan, born in County Longford, and his mother, Anne Higgins, born in County Leitrim, who predeceased him. He had three younger sisters: Joan, Maureen (who died in 1966), and Peggy. He grew up in the parish of St. Nicholas of Tolentine, listening to the radio, playing stickball and basketball, reading, selling newspapers after Sunday Mass, and hiking with his father and sister. He graduated from St. Nicholas of Tolentine Elementary School in 1952.

Drawn to the priesthood from a young age, he attended the Cathedral College, the archdiocesan minor seminary in Manhattan. He graduated in 1958 and completed college at St. Joseph’s Seminary and College in Dunwoodie, Yonkers. In 1960, he was sent to Rome, residing at the North American College and attending classes at the Pontifical Gregorian University. This was the time of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and the pontificates of Pope John XXIII and Paul VI. On December 18, 1963, he was ordained a priest in the church of St. Ignatius in Rome, and in June 1964, he was granted a licentiate in theology.

He was assigned as assistant chaplain to Willowbrook State School, Staten Island, in 1964. He was parochial vicar of St. Charles Borromeo, Harlem, from 1964 to 1973. This was during the 1960s: the era of civil rights marches, the beginning of anti-poverty programs, the Vietnam War, peace marches, and assassinations. He met the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. at Brown’s Chapel in Montgomery, Alabama, and marched with him the next day, March 17. It was a time when everything seemed possible, and his passion for social justice grew.

He also held a master’s degree in sociology from the New School for Social Research. He was chairman of the sociology department at Cathedral College, Douglaston, Queens, where he also served on the faculty from 1973 to 1987.

He was at St. Mary’s Immaculate Conception Church, Yonkers, for 31 years. He served as pastor from 1987 to 2013 and administrator from 2013 to 2018. He was president of the Interfaith Clergy of Yonkers from 1991 to 1993 and regional vicar of the Catholic churches in Yonkers from 1993 to 2010. He was named monsignor in 1995.

His love for gardening started in the early 1980s at his sister’s home in Connecticut. His first official garden was at St. Mary’s Immaculate Conception. He retired from St. Mary’s Immaculate Conception in 2018 to the Cardinal Egan Residence in the Bronx, where he continued to create and maintain beautiful gardens, enjoy his love of reading and learning, and explore his newfound interest in the cosmos.

Reverend Monsignor Hugh J. Corrigan is survived by his sisters Joan McGhee of Nanuet and Peggy Maher (Peter) of Alexandria, Virginia; his eight nieces and nephews, Maureen, Peggy Anne, Stephen, Kristina, Francis, Peter, Hugh, and John; and his 15 great-nieces and great-nephews.