By Alok Ganguly
PR Manager &
Julianne Clina
Staff Writer

Through his 25 years of life, he has contributed to political campaigns, coached high schoolers in both track and soccer, and has taught history. For such a small amount of time, he has had experiences from several walks of life, with important people, and following his dream. This man is Daniel Doherty.

Doherty teaches history here at WA, but prefers US history over the other subjects.

“[My favorite subject is] definitely US History, specifically the 1960s. The 1960s are really good. The 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, have a really good music, and I like to tie that into things,” said Doherty.

Doherty grew up in Lunenberg, approximately 30 minutes from Westford and went to Temple University in Philadelphia. Throughout his entire childhood, he aspired to be a teacher.

At one point, politics beckoned Doherty, and he decided that he would try out a small political career to see if success would find its way to him. During this time, he met several notable figures, including Joe Biden and Bill Clinton.

“I worked for Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008, I [later] worked for two brothers who were running for state representative in Philadelphia; I was their legislative aid. I also worked in the special senate election this past spring … I stood really, really close to Joe Biden. Too close actually, the FBI agents and Secret Service actually asked me to back up. I wasn’t going to do anything,” said Doherty.

Later, he discovered that a political career was an interesting and amusing side event, but he decided that he would much rather be in the classroom setting. He then switched careers, and began to teach at a creative writing school in Philadelphia, where The Roots, Jimmy Fallon’s house band, went to school. He also was a track coach there, which was the start of his athletic training career.

Doherty was very happy to come to WA, and enjoys the whole ambiance the school has, for various reasons.

“I kind of feel like since [WA] is so old, I work at Hogwarts. I always thought it was really interesting,” said Doherty.

He also appreciates how considerate the rest of the WA staff and students have been to him.

“Mr. Norander has been really good to me, helping me out, because he is the JV soccer coach,” said Doherty.

Along the way, he has developed much more friendly relationships with faculty members as well.

“Mr. Cruikshank is my arch nemesis,” Doherty said with a smile.

“He wishes we were on the same level,” Scott Cruikshank added, jokingly.

Regardless, Doherty hopes to be teaching in Westford in the future.