In Memoriam: Neil Riordan
By Dr. Josephine Ruggiero, Emerita Professor of Sociology, and Dr. Eric Hirsch, Professor of Sociology
Between 1972-1975, Providence College hired four faculty, with newly-minted doctorates in sociology, who made teaching and service at Providence College their professional lives’ work. Neil Riordan, hired in 1972, was one of them.
Neil grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts and got his undergraduate degree in Education at Fitchburg State College. He received a Masters in Sociology at Clark University and his Ph.D. in Sociology from Syracuse University. In 1979-81, Neil completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University where he worked with a professor who inspired one of his first research projects at PC– a replication of an experiment on producing equal-status interracial interaction (with J. A. Ruggiero).
Neil retired from the Sociology Department in 2015, after serving more than four decades as an educator, researcher, author, and mentor at PC. He was the author of numerous articles and three books (listed in the next paragraph) in the field of sociology of education. Neil was also an active member of various professional associations.
It is noteworthy that Neil was considered one of the national and international experts on single-sex education, studying its effects at all levels of schooling. He became a fierce defender of single sex-education based on the results of his rigorous research. He was the author of Girls and Boys in School: Together or Separate (1990) and numerous professional papers on this subject. He was the Project Director for a large national study of public single-sex schools for at-risk children, published in 2008. Neil was a keynote speaker, panelist, expert trial witness, researcher, and author on this subject for 25 years. He was a signatory of a Supreme Court Amicus Brief in the Virginia Military Institute case. Neil also authored a textbook in the sociology of education entitled Equality and Achievement. A full list of Neil’s publications can be found here: Cornelius Riordan Publications
Neil’s service to the Sociology Department and to PC was exemplary. He served as department Chair for three terms. He taught Introductory Sociology, the Sociology of Education, Computer Applications in Sociology and Research Methods. Neil was a member of the Martin Luther King Minority Scholarship committee and Director of the Southeast Asian Scholarship Program. Over the years, he served as a mentor to countless students as well as to junior faculty members in the Sociology Department and elsewhere on campus.
Neil was definitely proud of all these professional accomplishments. However, when a prospective new faculty member came to PC to give a presentation and asked current faculty members what the most salient aspect of their identity was, Neil replied “husband and father.” After his two grandchildren arrived, he would also have added “grandfather” with great enthusiasm.
Neil Riordan died at his home on Cape Cod in February, 2025. We will remember and miss him.
