Don Loughlin Returns to Huntington
Don Loughlin, who resigned his position as Huntington High School’s assistant principal in July 1968, returned to the school last month to participate in the 50th reunion of the Class of 1959. He stood on the running track during halftime of the homecoming day football game and held court about his time in the district.
Mr. Loughlin, who founded the Blue Devil boys’ lacrosse program, was the Class of 1959’s faculty advisor and he has maintained contact with several of its members, including class president Jerry Asher, who now serves as a Suffolk County judge and who invited Mr. Loughlin to attend the reunion.
Several people who recognized Mr. Loughlin did a double-take when they spotted him on the track. He chatted with Superintendent John J. Finello about his role in the organization of the “new” Huntington High School, which opened in late November 1958. “My office was right over there, so I could look out and see all the fields,” Mr. Loughlin said.
After teaching for several years in the district, he was elevated into the administrative ranks, eventually becoming longtime high school Principal Robert Cushman’s right-hand man. When Mr. Cushman decided to retire, Mr. Loughlin appeared to be the logical successor. But a selection committee of “experts” from outside the district instead chose another outsider, who served just 17 months in the post before departing in December 1969.
After being denied the position he really wanted, Mr. Loughlin accepted the principal’s job at Rush-Henrietta High School in suburban Rochester, staying there for two decades. He still resides in upstate Fairport, spending some of the winter in Florida.
Born in Brooklyn
Born in 1926 in Brooklyn, Mr. Loughlin began his Huntington teaching career on September 3, 1952. A 1941 junior high graduate of Belmont Boulevard School in Elmont and a 1944 graduate of Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park, he went to work for Bell Labs in New York City as a messenger before finding himself embroiled in World War II in September of that year, serving in the U.S. Navy and rising to the rank of 3rd class fire controlman in the South Pacific theater.
He served two years in the Navy, participating in the liberation of the Philippines along with the bloody invasion of Okinawa. Once discharged, Mr. Loughlin enrolled at Adelphi University, quickly became active in the student government and joined the lacrosse team, a squad he eventually captained. He was also president of the Adelphi Athletic Association.
During college Mr. Loughlin worked part-time as a salesman at Sears, Roebuck & Co. in Hempstead. After graduating from Adelphi with a Bachelor of Science degree he went to work in August 1950 as assistant to the president of Micro-Lite in New York City. He later worked as a cost accountant for Standard Brands in Manhattan, a post he held until he began his teaching career.
Mr. Loughlin was recalled to active military duty in June 1951 during the Korean War and served six months in Europe before a final discharge. Following a student teaching stint at Sewanhaka High School, he applied for a job in Huntington on April 12, 1952.
Hired to teach Business
The strapping 6’, 165 lb. military vet and former college athlete was hired to work as a business teacher at Robert L. Simpson High School, as Huntington High School was then known. The school was located on Main Street in what is now Town Hall.
After he was appointed to his position by the Huntington School Board but before he ever stepped foot in a classroom, he was offered an assistant lacrosse coaching position at Adelphi that offered him a reduced-cost master’s degree. He asked district officials for permission to accept the after school assignment and was turned down as administrators thought he would be spreading himself too thin so early in his teaching career.
Instead, Mr. Loughlin became a central figure in Huntington, initiating the lacrosse program here in 1955. He also served as vice president of the Long Island-Metropolitan Lacrosse Association. He was the Blue Devil head coach until 1959 when he turned the program over to legendary Cliff Murray upon being named high school assistant principal.
Mr. Loughlin served as president of the Adelphi College Alumni Association, was appointed as alumni representative to the Adelphi Board of Trustees and was president of the Suffolk County Business Teachers Association. He is a member of the Adelphi Athletic Hall of Fame.
After rapidly earning the respect of students, staff and the Huntington community, he was identified as holding the basic skills of leadership and organization needed for a successful career as a school administrator. With the opening of the new Huntington High School in late November 1958, the School Board decided to create a second assistant principal position to handle the influx of about 400 freshmen added to the high school building from what was then Robert K. Toaz Junior High School. Mr. Loughlin was hired to fill the new administrative post.
His AP responsibilities included the areas of discipline, pupil activities, school budgets and attendance and teacher orientation. The new position required him to step down from coaching and from serving as director of the district’s adult education program.
Master’s from Columbia
Mr. Loughlin earned a Master’s degree on June 1, 1954 from the Columbia University School of Business. By February 1960, he had completed another 30 post-graduate credits at Columbia.
During his time in Huntington, Mr. Loughlin married, became a father of two children and settled down in Northport. His career here ended at the same time Robert Cushman’s 18-year tenure as high school principal came to a close. Mr. Loughlin submitted a letter of resignation to Mr. Cushman, asking for it to become effective July 15, 1968 so he could assume new duties as principal of Rush-Henrietta High School in the Rochester area.
One of the only visible signs remaining of Mr. Loughlin’s time in Huntington rests in the treasure trove of yearbooks tucked away in a storage area beneath the School Heritage Museum at the high school.
In the 1959 edition of The Huntingtonian, there’s a famous photo of Mr. Cushman, Mr. Loughlin and Raymond A. Hettler, who was hired as an assistant principal at R.L. Simpson High School in 1955, exiting the new high school building just prior to its opening, following a tour of the facility days before students flooded into the school for the first time.
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