Judith Radigan

Dr. Judith Kidder “Judy” Radigan

December 13, 1944 – November 8, 2026

Dr. Judith Kidder “Judy” Radigan of Houston, who taught for more than fifty years and changed the lives of generations of students and teachers, died on November 8, 2026. She was 81.

Judy was born and raised in Houston. She graduated from Mount Carmel High School in 1962 and from the University of Dallas in 1966. There she met Thomas Glenn Radigan of Greenville, Mississippi. They were married for fifty years and raised four children.

Judy loved literature, theater, and dance, and as a young woman she wanted to be an actress. She became a teacher instead, and in the classroom, she found her audience. From 1976 to 1981 she was principal of St. Augustine Elementary School. She then returned to the classroom at Alvin High School, where for more than twenty years she taught English, speech, debate, drama, and English as a second language. She taught her students to ask hard questions and to think for themselves, and her classroom was a place for the ones who had not found a place anywhere else. Many of them stayed close to her long after they graduated.

While teaching full time and raising a family, Judy earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Houston, a Master of Education from the University of St. Thomas, and later a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Houston. She was 57 when she completed her doctorate, and by then her work at Rice University was already well under way.

Linda McNeil, co-founder of Rice’s Center for Education, brought Judy to Rice to do research with her, and Judy stayed for more than twenty-three years. Her research, at Rice and at the University of Houston, focused on immigrant families, students at risk of being left behind, and the effects of public policy on schools.

She worked alongside McNeil to build the Center’s programs for teachers and school leaders, and she became its Director of Education. Through the teachers she trained, her work reached thousands of children she never met. On October 28, 2023, Rice honored her with a lifetime achievement award. She had put her belief into one sentence in 2017: “Teachers are our greatest hope for the future of this country.”

Judy loved people and loved talking with them, and she was curious about everyone she met. She kept her friends for decades and loved them fiercely, among them the women who called themselves the Beach Beauties. She was independent and outspoken. She stood for fairness, equal opportunity, and the dignity of every person, and she had no patience for prejudice. She believed in her students, often before they believed in themselves, and many went on to lives they would not have considered without her.

Judy was preceded in death by her husband, Thomas Glenn Radigan. She is survived by her four children, Tom Radigan Jr., David Radigan, Kevin Radigan, and Shannon Hoffer; their spouses, Jill, Holly, Melinda, and Stewart; her twelve grandchildren, Cole, Chloe, Tyler, Ben, Paige, Charlie, Ella, Sam, Vince, Jace, Nash, and Rhodes; her sister, Yvonne Swanson; and her nieces and nephews.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Tuesday, November 24, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. at Rice Memorial Chapel on the Rice University campus in Houston, followed by a reception in Grand Hall. Friends, former students, colleagues, and all whose lives Judy touched are welcome.

In lieu of flowers, the family invites contributions in Judy’s memory to Rice University’s Center for Education, with the goal of establishing an endowed scholarship in her name. Gifts may be made https://riceconnect.rice.edu/support-glasscock-school  by selecting “Center for Education General Gifts.