Page by Page: A Life Based on Curiosity
Media provided by Cassie Ball ‘26.
After 26 years, dozens of job titles, and a career of making Grace feel a little more like home, Brian Reilly is leaving the Grace Church High School the same way he spent his time here: quietly building community, never chasing credit, and always finding a new adventure around the corner.
With a mix of investigating crime scenes in Washington, D.C., cheffing up pizza in Alaska, and teaching in our Astor Place classrooms, Mr. Reilly’s path to Grace was anything but linear. But once he arrived, he became the educational version of lightning in a bottle: a teacher who could teach anything, lead anyone, and still find it exciting, year after year.
Even before he joined the Grace community, Mr. Reilly’s resume read more like a thriller by Stephen King—one of his childhood favorite authors—than a LinkedIn page. Starting in his senior year of college at The George Washington University, he became a crime reporter in Washington, D.C., covering murders during the city’s deadliest years as the homicide capital of the United States. At The Washington Times, he spent nights chasing down alleged criminals for interviews, writing headlines, and once a SWAT team carried him out of police headquarters after a gunman opened fire inside. Over time, as a reporter, constant lies from both police officials and criminals made him question even the people he held closest to him. Somewhere, in this pot of crime scenes and skepticism, he realized he did not just want to tell stories. He wanted to change them.
So Mr. Reilly packed a bag and “wandered”—a word copied from his LinkedIn. Mr. Reilly spent more than two years traveling across the country, picking up “odd jobs” from oyster shucker to restaurant manager, a job offered to him after befriending the famous New York City restaurateur family that owned Carmine’s. In his time as a nomad, he lived in 10 states, worked a dozen different gigs, and eventually settled in New York, where he found a job teaching at the school we know and love: Grace Church. Unbeknownst to him, what would start as a temporary teaching job while finishing his public school teaching certification would turn into a 26-year era of his life.
In the classroom, Mr. Reilly always led with excitement and expected his students to follow suit. “I really believe I lead and teach by excitement,” he said, “If I’m not excited about trying something new, I don’t think I’m a good teacher.”
Despite his sixth-grade literature class having a somewhat fixed curriculum, he tried his best to reinvent it by chasing new books, ideas, and ways to get students thinking. If he taught about new texts that he was interested in, then both his students and he would be learning at the same time. Whether it was this sixth-grade class, ninth-grade World Literature, or his Journalism class, his real subject was curiosity, and he did his absolute best to spread that to his students.
Mr. Reilly’s vision stretched beyond the classroom walls. Over the years, he worked in every field that Grace had to offer: Journalism Director, Literature Teacher, Grade Dean, High School Student Activities Coordinator, and COVID Logistics Coordinator are just some of the titles he has held during his life at Grace. During the pandemic, he led the charge to build the school’s reopening plans. He did everything from designing COVID testing policies to getting on his hands and knees to tape six-foot markers on hallway floors. No matter the occupation he held that year, his goals always stayed the same: make sure that the community at Grace was seen, safe, and supported. While some would loathe having to step into different shoes every year, Mr. Reilly’s flexibility allowed him to embrace these roles with excitement and a passion for making Grace a better place.
Mr. Reilly with veteran broadcaster Ann Curry, who visited the high school in 2023. Media Provided by Dana Foote.
If you go and ask Mr. Reilly what makes Grace “Grace,” he does not hesitate: “I know it’s trite, but it’s community.” Even as his roles have shifted over the two and a half decades, he has always kept the same goal: to make sure students feel supported. No matter his role, everything pointed back to the same belief: school works best when you feel at home.
For the world of goodbyes, Mr. Reilly would prefer an Irish one. He does not want to give any speeches or have spotlights, he would prefer just a quiet slip into his next adventure. Though this article might interrupt his mysterious sneak out, after 26 years, the Grace community could not let him leave unnoticed. His curious, generous, and unwavering spirit represents his self-proclaimed “golden retriever” spirit animal perfectly.
What Mr. Reilly has done for the community will stick around a lot longer than his nameplate. Though Mr. Reilly may be moving on, page by page, the community he helped build will keep thriving. For his next challenge, he will finally finish the certification he started all those years ago and teach English as a second language in Queens public schools. We all wish him the best on his next adventure.
Luckily for us, we still have a few more weeks to pass him in the halls, swap a story (journalistic or not), or just say thanks…for everything.
Caleb Lopata ‘26, the author, is a staff writer for The Grace Gazette.