Dr. Harrigan was born in New York City but moved to Lynbrook, Long Island at an early age with his two siblings. He attended high school in Lynbrook and his father acted as a customs lawyer but was not a degreed attorney. His mother passed away during World War II. Dr. Harrigan played football in high school. He then matriculated at Georgetown University for two years before going to the University of Pennsylvania where he attended dental school and received his degree in 1930. He did post graduate work at New York University. There, he did numerous cleft palate surgeries. While working as a general dentist, he was accepted to NYU Medical School after obtaining his BS degree which was a requirement to pursue an MD degree. He graduated from NYU Medical School in 1942. He then did a residency in general surgery at Meadowbrook Hospital in Nassau County. Dr. Harrigan was drafted into the Army during World War II and was assigned to the Lenox Hill Unit which was sent to England to work with what became the Third Army under General George Patton. Patton was one of Dr. Harrigan’s favorite people and, on one occasion, Dr. Harrigan examined General Patton himself. During the War, he worked with the Maxillofacial Unit for wounded soldiers. On discharge from the Army, he returned to New York and became a clinical professor of Oral Surgery at NYU Dental School. Dr. Leo Winter, the head of the department, died in 1950, and Dr. Harrigan became the new head. He also took over the oral surgery training program at Bellevue.

Dr. Harrigan took a program that was largely devoted to exodontia and he advanced oral surgery in New York City until it became a full-fledged surgical specialty. He had to fight all the competing medical specialties as well as many in the dental field who did not have his vision for the future of oral and maxillofacial surgery. While other parts of the country permitted oral surgeons to make skin incisions and do advanced trauma and facial surgery, New York was very reluctant to allow oral surgeons to have full membership in the surgical community.  Dr. Harrigan was a very conservative surgeon and was reluctant to move into some of the cosmetic and elective procedures that we now take for granted, but he fought tirelessly for our right to do the work for which we were educated and trained.

He expanded the program to include a rotation to the Meadowbrook Hospital(now NUMC) which eventually became a separate program. He was active on the American Board of Oral Surgery where he was an examiner.  He had a reputation as a no nonsense, impassioned, gruff individual who devoted his entire life to the advancement of oral surgery. He was fiercely loyal to the people he trained and many of his trainees developed a life-long relationship with him. He started a tradition of returning to New York once a year and this led to our alumni association which became the William F. Harrigan Society when he died in 1980.

He was happily married to the former Helen Elizabeth Storts and they had four children. Mrs. Harrigan was significantly active socially with the interns and residents who came through the program over the years.