04/14/2026
John F. Horrigan Jr.
John F. ("Jack") Horrigan Jr, 97, of Wyomissing, passed away, April 13, 2026, at The Highlands.
Jack was born on October 15, 1928, the eldest child of the late John F. and Madeline (Rauen) Horrigan.
He graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1946, earned a BS in Business Administration from Loyola University Maryland in 1949, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Albright College in 2004.
In 1951 and '52 during the Korean War, he served alongside his twin brother, Richard, in Washington, DC as a sergeant in the Criminal Investigation Department of the U.S. Army.
In 1952, Jack, his father, and Richard formed an automobile- and consumer-finance corporation that eventually, with Jack as CEO, grew to become Horrigan American Inc., the parent company of several leasing, real estate, and financial operations based in Reading, PA, including Horrigan Finance, American Equipment Leasing, American Commercial Finance, and American Real Estate and Development. Throughout a nearly 50-year career, his shrewd business acumen was leavened with a rare set of interpersonal skills that made him a pleasure to work with and for. He retired in 1996.
In addition to working and raising six children with his wife, Peggy, he devoted his time and energy to many local religious, civic, and cultural institutions. It's no exaggeration to say that Jack Horrigan was a pillar of his community. Since 1961, he was an active member of Sacred Heart Church, West Reading, serving on its first Parish Council and becoming one of its first lay lectors in the immediate wake of Vatican II. He was a staunch supporter of LifeLine of Berks County since its founding in 1974, a nonprofit organization offering life-affirming medical and educational services to support mothers and babies. He served on the Board of Trustees of Albright College from 1988 until 2003, including a four-year stint as Board Chair from 1996 until 2000. He was the first Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Berks Business Education Coalition, a nonprofit founded in 1992 to coordinate programs within the business and education communities, helping students plan appropriately for their lives after high school. He also served as Chairman of the boards of the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Greater Berks Development Fund, and the Pennsylvania Financial Services Association in Camp Hill. And that's just a selection of his many volunteer activities.
One of his proudest achievements was co-chairing with his wife the 2001 campaign to fund construction of the John Paul II Center for Special Learning in Shillington, PA, dedicated to the education of special-needs children and adults in Berks County; in 2016 he co-chaired a second capital campaign to expand the Center.
His many accolades include the Leadership-by-Example Award given by Berks Encore, a nonprofit serving the needs of Berks County's aging community (2003); the Robert P. Casey Medal, given by the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania for extraordinary commitment to higher education (2004); and the Outstanding Philanthropist Award, given by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Berks Regional Chapter, for his monumental impact on local nonprofits through financial support and dedicated service (2015).
Given so many accomplishments, one risks losing sight of the individual. Jack Horrigan was, to use a word he himself often used when describing someone he admired, a "beautiful" man. All kinds of people in all sorts of situations turned to him for advice, and for good reason: he was an attentive listener with a sharp memory and a remarkably open mind. He was unfailingly polite and punctual. He wasn't above apologizing when he made mistakes. He sustained deep, long-term friendships. He was a dutiful son and brother; a faithful husband; a sturdy and devoted father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. He never gossiped, advising his children to refrain from making a remark unless it was kind, necessary, and true ("or at least two out of the three"). He loved rattling his kids first thing in the morning by knocking vigorously on their bedroom doors, crying "great to be alive!" He was capable of seeing and understanding people who were different from himself. He possessed an inquisitive, flexible mind. He was an avid reader with a particular interest in history, biography, and theology. In 2014, the year after his brother Richard died, he self-published a characteristically meticulous but also endearing memoir entitled Dick and I: Our First Twenty-seven Years as Twin Brothers and Best Friends. He sometimes thought, in another life he might have been a lawyer. One of his favorite movies was Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) starring Jimmy Stewart, about an earnest young senator who defends the ideals of the republic against an entrenched political system (for a brief spell his kids fondly joked he should run for mayor of Reading). He never wore blue jeans and didn't like pizza. He loved a game of cards, relished a good courtroom drama, enjoyed theatre, concerts, and opera, delighted in summer vacations at the Jersey shore, played tennis until his early 80s, and was a lifelong Phillies and Eagles fan. You'd be forgiven for thinking, when reading the memoir about his brother, that the real subject of the book was baseball.
When accepting yet another accolade-the 2002 Alvernia University Franciscan Award for Leadership and Service to the Community, an award he shared with his wife-Jack spoke about the importance of maintaining balance in life. For him, balance consisted mainly of Family, Church, and Work. In the same spirit, one of his favorite mottos was "Everything in Moderation." But in fact his life embodied something greater than "moderation" and "balance": a boundless impulse of generosity and love, rooted in faith, that was nothing short of extravagant.
He is survived by his six children: Mary Jo, wife of John Dever, Jr., Reading; Suzanne, wife of Jeffrey Johnson, Waterbury Center, VT; Elizabeth, wife of James Rathz, Wexford, PA; John F. III, husband of Colleen Horrigan, River Forest, IL; Karen Horrigan, partner of Stuart Sheer, Washington, DC; and Patrick E., husband of Eduardo Leanez, New York, NY; eleven grandchildren: John Dever III, husband of Hayley; Robert Johnson; Lauren Johnson; Ben Johnson, husband of Kelly; Erin Rathz; Colleen Rathz, wife of Kelsey Kaski; Matthew Rathz; John F. Horrigan IV, husband of Michelle; Joseph Horrigan, husband of Rebecca; Meg Horrigan, wife of Michael Mostowy; and Mary Horrigan; seven great-grandchildren: Olivia, JD, Eloise, Emma, Maddie, Charlotte, and Willa; and four siblings: Theresa Montgomery, Madeline Horrigan, Sue Ozar, and Michael Horrigan. He was predeceased by his wife Margaret (Ermentrout) Horrigan as well as his brother Richard W. and sisters Mary M. O'Connell and Margaret Connolly.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Tuesday, April 21, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. at Sacred Heart RCC, West Reading. Entombment will be in Gethsemane Mausoleum. Friends may call from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. the night before in Edward J. Kuhn Funeral Home, Inc., 739 Penn Avenue, West Reading, PA 19611.
Contributions may be made to the John Paul II Center for Special Learning, 1092 Welsh Road, Shillington, PA 19607; Sacred Heart Church, 740 Cherry St., West Reading, PA 19611; and Friends of Kenyan Orphans, 18640 Mack Avenue, Suite #1294, Grosse Pointe, MI 48236.
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