A former Montgomery County principal who made national headlines after coming out as gay died earlier this month and will be remembered next week during a memorial service at Watkins Mill High School.
Peter Cahall, who retired as principal of Thomas Edison High School of Technology in 2017, died May 8 at age 55, according to an obituary. He previously served as principal of Rocky Hill Middle School in Clarksburg and Watkins Mill High in Gaithersburg, but drew national attention in 2014 after coming out as gay during a Pride Day event at Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington.
He left the school shortly after and re-joined the Montgomery school system, where he stayed until his retirement.
“Montgomery County feels like home to me,” Cahall told the Washington Post in 2015.
Cahall died at a hospital in Marlton, New Jersey, where he lived, according to his obituary, and a funeral was held earlier this month. A cause of death was not listed.
Montgomery County education leaders have organized a memorial for Cahall June 8 at Watkins Mill High School. The memorial, open to the public, will begin at 10 a.m. and those attending are asked to wear orange to honor the former principal.
In an op-ed published on The Washington Post’s website in 2015, Cahall detailed his humble beginnings as a boy growing up in Jersey living paycheck-to-paycheck and his adult life projecting a public image as a straight man.
He said he did not plan to announce he was gay, but felt compelled to be honest with his students who he encouraged to be honest.
“I was telling my students to be themselves, that this is a safe space,” he wrote when he was 50 years old. “I had to live my own doctrine and message.”
Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz@moco360.media
