OZONE PARK — Here’s an easy-to-solve math problem. What do you get when you take an enthusiastic teacher and add a strong desire to share knowledge with generations of students? The answer is William Ferguson.
Ferguson, who more than 50 years ago started teaching at St. Elizabeth Catholic Academy in Ozone Park and then served as its principal before returning to the classroom to teach again, liked to pepper his math lessons with jokes to calm down jittery students.
His love for math went beyond the walls of the school. He ventured out into Ozone Park and Howard Beach to offer his services as a tutor to Catholic and public school students alike, said his granddaughter, Ava Cuomo, who teaches first grade at St. Elizabeth.
“There are probably hundreds of people out there who passed their Algebra and Geometry Regents because of him,” Cuomo said.
But St. Elizabeth was his first love, and his impact on the school is still felt several months after his death at the age of 78. On June 12, St. Elizabeth Principal Josephine Giudice gathered in the auditorium with students, teachers, and Ferguson’s family for a tribute.
“There are people in their 40s and 50s who still come back [to the school] and talk about what a great teacher he was,” Giudice said.
As part of the tribute, a plaque bearing Ferguson’s name was placed inside the academy’s entrance.
“It was such a proud moment for my family,” said Ferguson’s daughter, Maria Cuomo, an assistant principal at Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood.
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Ferguson had an impact on St. Elizabeth, the community, and the Diocese of Brooklyn, his family said. He taught generations of students, served the larger community through his work as a math tutor, and ensured his family’s commitment to the diocese by inspiring both his daughter, Maria, and granddaughter, Ava, to teach at Catholic schools.
Ferguson, who was born on Nov. 2, 1945, and died on Sept. 17, 2024, had a long association with St. Elizabeth Catholic Academy that began in childhood.
He enrolled there as a kindergarten student in 1950 and graduated from the eighth grade in 1958. After graduating from Archbishop Molloy and earning a business degree from St. John’s University, he got a job as a math teacher at St. Elizabeth in 1970.
In 1974, he became an assistant principal while continuing to teach. Then, in 2002, with the school facing financial and enrollment challenges that threatened its very existence, Ferguson stepped forward to volunteer as principal.
Ferguson refused a pay raise so as not to add to the school’s budget woes and worked to put the school on a secure financial footing. One of the steps he took was launching a Pre-K for All program, which boosted kindergarten enrollment and brought much-needed funds into the school.
All this while continuing to teach.
“He really turned that school around when it was in crisis,” Maria said. “That’s because he had three things: He had a strong Catholic identity. He was strong in academics, and he had a great head for business.
“He understood the business end of being a principal.”
In 2013, the academy honored him by naming its building the Ferguson Center. He retired four years later in 2017. However, he wasn’t quite done with St. Elizabeth and returned to the classroom to teach his favorite subject.
Ava served as a teaching assistant in his classroom prior to becoming a teacher herself. She marveled at the rapport he had with his students and was in awe of his dedication to his job. His health had taken a turn for the worse, and yet he still worked, she recalled.
“He would be out of breath a lot and needed someone who would go to the board to write things down. I was happy to do that for him,” Ava said, adding that being in his classroom “was the most amazing experience of my life because I learned so much from him.”
She added, “Everything I teach now, all the strategies, have come from him, even the little catchphrases I use.”
Maria Cuomo recalled that her father was teaching up until he went into the hospital in the fall of 2024, shortly before his death.
“When my mom left the hospital room, I said to him, ‘Dad, don’t you think it’s time that you stop working?’ ” she said. “He told me, ‘Maria, I’ve been doing this for 54 years. This is my life.’ It was what he loved.”
Giudice said that while Ferguson’s skills as a teacher and administrator were legendary, what she remembered most about him was his kindness.
“I was really nervous about becoming the principal, and he was so encouraging,” she recalled. “He told me that he believed in me. His encouragement meant a lot to me.
“And he was like that with everyone, always lifting people up.”
