Directory & Departments

Titles: Advancement Officer, Liaison to South Catholic Alumni, Religion Teacher
Departments: Religion, Advancement

Fran Laffin is a Religion Teacher and Advancement Officer at Northwest Catholic. After graduating with a B.A. in History from St. Michael’s College, Mr. Laffin headed to Europe to play professional basketball. 

After three seasons, Mr. Laffin retired from overseas basketball to pursue his true passion — teaching. He spent his first ten years in education teaching and coaching at South Catholic. During that period, he earned his M.A. in Pastoral Ministry and Counseling from St. Joseph College, now the University of St. Joseph. He also continued to play semi-professional basketball in the New England Basketball Association. 

Mr. Laffin left South Catholic in 1986 to accept an administrative position in an Archdiocesan agency working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In 1987 Northwest Catholic asked him to teach part time, which would not interfere with his duties as a Director for Catholic Charities. Because he loved being with students, he continued to teach while developing and maintaining ten group homes throughout the Archdiocese for two decades. 

In 2009 Mr. Laffin retired from Catholic Charities to work full time at NWC. He continues to be passionate about helping students understand their purpose as they become aware of the gifts and talents that God has planted within them and the incredible potential they possess to make a difference in peoples’ lives. He is honored, humbled, and grateful to be a teacher at Northwest because he gets to live out his faith through his work with so many wonderful people. They say that if you love what you do, you never have to work another day. Well, Mr. Laffin says he hasn’t worked in more than 40 years!