MICHAEL LAWRENCE HORIGAN

Born: March 31, 1940
Died: March 26, 2011

Michael L. Horigan was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, son of John Jospeh Horigan, 1919S, and Gladys Hornsby Horigan. At the time of his birth his parents were in Argentina where his father worked in the oil business. Shortly after Mike's birth the family moved to Aruba where his father operated an oil refinery for ESSO for many years.

Mike's elder brother John was Yale Class of 1956 and his uncle Richard was Class of 1923.

Mike and his family lived in New Canaan, Connecticut by the late 1950's. He prepared for Yale at Canterbury School, New Milford, Connecticut.

At Yale Mike roomed Freshman Year with Bill Sanders, a fellow Canterbury graduate, and with Gib LaMotte and Art Roberts, both of Baltimore. Mike was a resident of Jonathan Edwards College and a member of the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club. He was on the Freshman wrestling team. Mike earned his B.A. in American Studies.

After Yale Mike worked for many years in the re-insurance industry. Subsequently, he went into financial services and related entrepreneurial ventures. At the time of his death he was Executive Vice President of Essex Program Marketing, Inc., of Chappaqua, New York.

Mike was married to the former Joan Lane for 46 years. Joan was employed for many years in an after-school program for young children serving the Chappaqua school system. They had 4 children: Tara Cross of Somers, New York; Kerry Smith of Garden City, Long Island; Sabrina Monsebroten of Coos Bay, Oregon; and Clayton Horigan of South Amboy, New Jersey. Mike had 8 grandchildren at the time of his death. A 9th is now (Spring 2012) on the way.

Mike's daughter Kerry reported that her father was a voracious reader, reading books, articles, newspapers, magazines, anything and everything, even the back of cereal boxes if nothing else was at hand. To avoid choking the house with books, her mother, Kerry said, forbid further purchases and insisted that Mike use the local public libraries.

Mike and Joan enjoyed entertaining at home. They also loved dancing. Kerry remembered the time on the Q.E. II on the way back from Italy when the couple cleared the dance floor doing The Charleston.

As befitting his youthful travel experiences, Mike continued to enjoy traveling with Joan. Kerry speculated that he had been to at least 79 countries.

Mike died suddenly on March 26, 2011, due to a defective heart valve. He was 5 days short of his 71st birthday.

Information for this obituary essay was supplied by Mike's daughter Kerry and classmate Scott Barksdale, who had several business dealings with Mike in recent years and alerted Yale about his death.