Inducted in 2007
Detective, NYPD; Attorney
Member, Prep Board of Trustees (1979-1987)
Father of Five Prep Graduates

Induction Video

John "Jack" Corcoran was born in 1917 to Richard Corcoran, who worked for the Department of Agriculture, and Anna Stephenson Corcoran, a homemaker from the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan. He grew up in the Bronx around Bedford Park Boulevard, in apartments on Briggs Avenue and East 199th Street  — just a short walk from the Rose Hill Campus. He had two siblings: a sister, Marion, and a brother, Richard, Jr., a member of the Class of 1942.

As as was for many, life was not always easy or comfortable for the Corcorans during the Great Depression. At an early age, Jack learned the value of hard work, and like many others of his generation, he worked all through high school and college to help pay for his tuition and to contribute to the household. 

Despite the hours he would put in after school and on weekends at his job, Corcoran was a star athlete during his Prep years, playing football, basketball, and golf. He was on the Prep’s historic 1932-3 Catholic High School Championship-winning basketball squad under fellow Hall of Honor inductee Coach Graham, and was captain of the Prep golfers during his senior year. He would continue to captain the golf team at the University, from which he graduated in 1937.

Jack and his wife, Adele Grady Corcoran, were married in Forest Hills, Queens at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in 1941. They had nine children: four daughters, and five sons. All five of their sons — Michael, John Jr., Kevin, Brian, and Richard — graduated from the Prep, Classes of 1961, 1963, 1973, 1976, and 1978 respectively. Michael, John and Brian continued at Fordham University, while Kevin attended the University of California at Santa Barbara and Richard headed down to Georgetown.  Daughters Claire and Patricia graduated from Marymount in Manhattan in 1964 and '68, Theresa from Marymount, Arlington in '68 and Kathleen from her brother Kevin's alma mater in 1974.
 
Corcoran had not one, but two distinguished careers. He would serve on the New York City Police Department from 1940 to 1951, working as an undercover agent for six years, and becoming one of the city’s most frequently decorated officers and a gold shield detective. As recalled by his daughter, Kathleen, Jack used to tell a favorite story about an amusing incident during his days as undercover detective assigned to break up a numbers ring in Coney Island: “Having received a tip from his informer, 'Coney Island Frank,' Dad and his partner decided ride the parachute drop to get a bird's eye view of the amusement park. They were raised up to the top for the drop, but they both experienced vertigo — and closed their eyes. During the descent, they had to admit to each other that they hadn’t seen a thing. But they didn’t quit. Up they went again. This time they managed to keep their eyes open and spotted the illegal activity.”

In 1951, while still working as a police detective, Jack entered Saint John’s Law School and received his degree in 1954. He left the NYPD and became a full-time attorney specializing in trial work, leaving behind a record of 600 arrests and a 90% conviction rate — an extraordinary achievement. 

His second career in law would be no less remarkable than his first in law enforcement had been. In fact, during the first 25 years of his law career, he tried 200 cases in state and federal courts winning all but a handful of them. For five consecutive years, Jack would record the most trial wins in Brooklyn Supreme Court. He became well-known and well-respected in legal circles, eventually becoming president of the Metropolitan Lawyers Association. 

Jack Corcoran remained a loyal son of Fordham all his days. He served on the Fordham Prep Board of Trustees from September 1979 to June 1987, including a term as chairman of the Board. He also was a member of the Fordham Prep Alumni Association, on which he also served a presidential stint. Corcoran had also been a member of the University’s Athletic Governing Board during the 1970s and had received the Jack Coffey Memorial Award for his avid and unswerving dedication to Fordham University athletics. In 1987, at the University’s annual Block “F” Dinner, Jack was inducted into Fordham University Athletic Hall of Fame for his generosity to Fordham's athletic programs.

"Jackie Corcoran did everything from arrange golf outings for Jesuit priests to things we’ll never know about, because he wasn’t interested in ostentatious giving," once noted Frank McLaughlin, Prep Class of 1965 and athletics director emeritus at Fordham University. 

“Jack Corcoran is the most generous man I have ever known:" the words of Rev. George McMahon, SJ, University Dean and Vice President as he bestowed upon Jack the Fordham's Life Achievement Award in the Area of Law. 

John J. Corcoran Sr. died on June 29, 1998. In his eulogy for his dad, Kevin would write “We all carry examples of his remarkable generosity of spirit and the understated manner and grace in which it was dispensed." His quiet and genuine concern for others would touch many in his time.  His kindness, his willingness to give of himself, and his engaged devotion to alma mater Fordham — Prep and University alike — will never be forgotten.