Rev. Dr. Shirley L. Harrington

Wake, Saturday, November 9th from 10-11 am at St. Luke AME Zion Church, 314 E. Ferry Street, Buffalo NY; funeral to follow at 11 am Forest Lawn Cemetery. Dec. 1, 1930 Nov. 2, 2019 Shirley Louise Harrington never bore any children, but it didn't diminish her desire to nurture those not born to her. Ms. Harrington lavished that elemental aspect of her character on many children, including the hundreds of pupils to whom she taught science for many years in various Buffalo Public Schools and, chiefly, to the three children she adopted, along with the many to whom she served as a foster mom. Indeed, her nurturing nature didn't stop at aiding children. It extended to her entire community, and in a multitude of endeavors. Ms. Harrington died Saturday at her home in Buffalo. She was 88. Born in Buffalo, she was a graduate of the former Fosdick-Masten High School and earned her bachelor's degree in science from the University at Buffalo. Ms. Harrington went on to teach science in the Buffalo Public School District at Clinton Junior High School, Woodlawn Junior High School and Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School. She retired from the school district in the early 1990s. Given the degree to which she immersed herself in work and study, her commitment to nurturing children outside of teaching is all the more remarkable. Ms. Harrington earned a master's degree in education and a Ph.D. in psychology, both from UB. She also earned a master's degree in theology from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in 1981. While still teaching during the 1970s, she served as executive assistant to the director of the BUILD Halfway House on East Utica Street. Ms. Harrington worked closely with the Citizens Commission on Criminal Justice of Buffalo & Erie County, which was instrumental in launching the halfway house that offered food, shelter, counseling and even loaned money to both men and women who were newly released from prison. She was a founder of the Women's Caucus at UB, a program designed by the university's Office of Human Resources Development that aimed to stimulate the upward mobility of women civil service employees, who in the late 1970s and early '80s continued to be mired in lower pay grade civil service positions. In a 1980 Buffalo Evening News article, Harrington described the program as less of an activists' group and more of a support group. She was a member of the site committee for a Buffalo affiliate of Habitat for Humanity that, in the mid 1980s, sought to acquire 14 architecturally significant 1890s-era row houses on Emerson Place to restore them with donated materials and the sweat equity of volunteers and future low-income homeowners. Ms. Harrington also was a founding member of the Afro American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier, as well as a member of the Sojourner Truth Club, the Buffalo Chapter of the National Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs and the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She also held positions as assistant director at the State University Educational Opportunity Center; assistant director of affirmative action and human relations at UB; director of the Education Department at the Buffalo Urban League; and executive director of the New York State Department of Labor office in Buffalo. Ms. Harrington also ran a successful day care center, "Love n Care Day Care," from her East Utica Street home until the early 2000s. In 1986, the Buffalo Urban League presented Ms. Harrington with its Family Life Award for her role in strengthening the black family by opening her home as a refuge to homeless children and those from distressed homes, many of whom went on to lead productive lives. She is survived by two sons, James and Kevin, and a daughter, Joy Richerson. A funeral service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday in St. Luke's AME Zion Church, 314 E. Ferry St.