Edward C. Corrigan; Father of Teacher Who Died Aboard Shuttle Challenger
Edward C. Corrigan, father of Christa McAuliffe, the teacher-astronaut who along with six other crew members was killed in the Challenger space shuttle explosion four years ago, has died. He was 67.
Corrigan died Thursday after a struggle against cancer.
He also had fought to make sense of his daughter’s death seconds after the space shuttle’s liftoff ended in a fiery explosion.
“He missed Christa every day of his life,” said Corrigan’s wife of 42 years, Grace. “We incorporated her in everything, because she was part of us. He spent the last four years doing what she had left undone.”
In recent years, Corrigan had traveled from Alaska to Jordan to deliver lectures on his daughter’s behalf at school and scholarship dedications, fund-raisers and the annual Governor’s Ski Invitational in New Hampshire.
Corrigan, a retired accountant, is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters. A funeral was scheduled for Sunday, the fourth anniversary of his daughter’s death.
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