Nancy Duggan, longtime Catholic school teacher, dies at 88

Nancy Duggan, a beloved elementary school teacher who devoted her career to educating generations of students, and who remained a friend to many of those students long after they left her classroom, died December 28 in Seattle.

She was 88.

Duggan taught at St. Edward and Holy Rosary schools in Seattle and in Bakersfield, Calif. But perhaps her most lasting impressions came in the decades devoted to students of Our Lady of the Lake School in Seattle’s Wedgwood neighborhood where Duggan taught fourth grade from the 1970s through the 1990s.

“She led with the ‘no-nonsense’ vibe,” recalled Ann Doll, part of OLL’s class of 1984. “But even as a fourth grader, you knew that she was very tender just below the surface. I remember her giving me a wry smile or a quiet smile and thinking, ‘She’s not as scary as I thought.’”

Duggan walked that elusive line of being strict and loving, her students said: inspiring a little fear of needing to behave or perform, but also being a cheerleader and someone you could trust.

Once in 1990, a student replied to Duggan’s question about an incomplete spelling assignment by saying he “didn’t get around to it.” Duggan took a piece of yellow construction paper, cut it into a circle and told him, “Here’s your round to it.”

Those round circles continued to be handed out whenever assignments were incomplete without good reason -- though that student who received the first one never missed another of Duggan’s homework assignments.

“I got the sense that she was a woman of conviction,” Doll said. “You shouldn’t argue with her. It was bound to go nowhere.”

Most anyone taught by Duggan at OLL can still recite the basic prepositions that she made you memorize (about, above, across, after, against, among, around, at …) and can still remember how to spell the longest word in the dictionary: antidisestablishmentarianism.

Students who returned to visit decades later smiled as they could still recite it to her. Some even teach it today to their own students.

“She set us up for life,” said Andrew Schirmer, part of the OLL’s class of 1996. “In some ways, I feel like the schooling we received in her fourth-grade class was the best education I received in my life, secondary or college.”

Duggan’s fellow teachers admired her, too.

“I felt privileged to have been the fifth-grade teacher that inherited her students,” said Joan Harvey, another beloved OLL teacher. “Her love of literature and grammar and her understanding of mathematical concepts necessary for a strong foundation were evident in every way she instructed her students.”

Duggan even used her birthday, March 4th, as a lesson, explaining to students it was the only day that is also a command.

Duggan was born in 1931 in Cullahill, Ireland, and traveled with five friends in March 1952 to join the Tacoma Dominicans. The group remained friends, and even in her 80s, Duggan and her companions attended the annual Mayor's Irish Week Proclamation Luncheon at F. X. McRory's.

“As a kid I was mystified by the fact she was a former nun and was from Ireland,” Doll said. “She was a little exotic to be in little ol’ Wedgwood with her brogue, fisherman’s knit cardigan sweater with brown buttons, turtlenecks, dress pants, sensible short haircut, 1970s bifocals and mugs of tea.”

Stories like that were shared at her funeral mass, held January 3 at Assumption Catholic Church in Seattle. Duggan’s survivors include her siblings, Nora, Tess and Martin, along with nieces and nephews and her large extended family. Her cousin and close friend Fr. Peter Duggan, who taught at Lynnwood’s St. Thomas More Parish, were among those who preceded her in death.

As news of Duggan’s passing spread among OLL alumni, many wished they had another chance to tell Duggan how much they loved her.

“Nancy Duggan was one of the first who imprinted that idea that women are capable of great strength, independence, and impact,” Doll said.

“She didn’t teach it outright that I can remember. But looking back, she was among a set of women that set that example for me. Thank God for them all.”

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