Memorial For Former Wyckoff Student To Continue 'Legacy Of Kindness'

WYCKOFF, NJ — Kind and athletic, Jack Hourihan made friends easily and welcomed those who needed a friend, those who knew him said. After an 18-month battle with brain cancer, the former student at Wyckoff's George Washington Elementary School passed away in March at the age of 21.

Recognizing Hourihan's love of hiking and the outdoors, the school's fifth-grade class created a stone-lined path to the outdoor classroom, and then held a ceremony last week to dedicate the path, which bears a plaque that reads, "You'll Never Walk Alone" — the adopted song of his favorite team, the Liverpool Football Club.

In laying the rocks to line "Jack's Path," the fifth-graders also accepted a challenge — "We agreed to make sure that no one ever walks alone at Washington School," Student Council Vice President Max said at the ceremony.

"Our challenge is to make sure everyone feels safe, comfortable and included at Washington," Max said.

Even though Hourihan was a student before many of the fifth graders were even born, he loved a lot of the same things and celebrated Washington events just like they do, student council president Sofia said.

He loved hiking. He liked to play sports, especially soccer. He was even artistic. But what most teachers and students remember about him was how kind he was, Sofia added.

"He was a student who looked out for others and could talk to anyone," she said. "He was a student who led by example, just like we want to do as fifth graders."

"Jack's Path," the student council officers said, serves as a reminder that students are capable of achieving that same goal, and can do so in his memory.

After Hourihan's passing, the student council was engaged to brainstorm ideas to carry forward his "legacy of kindness." And with a "generous" donation of quarry stones from the Braen family, the officers worked with the rest of the class to clear the wooded path and add the stones, Superintendent Kerry Postma said.

When the path was completed, the plaque donated by the school's parent-teacher organization was affixed to a nearby tree, and the site was dedicated in a ceremony led by student council officers, under the direction of teacher Michelle Halupka and Principal Scott Blake.

"It was a beautiful, tender time with smiles and tears and laughter outside in the clearing in the woods behind the school," Postma said of the ceremony, which was attended by Hourihan's family and friends, along with his former teachers and the current fifth-grade class.

The student officers shared memories of Hourihan they had collected from teachers, and exhorted classmates to be kind and lead by example like he did, Postma said.

"Jack left his mark on Washington, and we promise to think about his kindness and teamwork while we are in class, at lunch, or at recess," Sofia said. "Now we have a beautiful reminder of what he always stood for."