Gordon Frederick Corrigan was born in Rochester, New York, on May 13, 1920. He attended the Aquinas Institute in Rochester where he was editor in chief of the book Christ the King. He attended the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, before working in radio production.

Corrigan saw active duty in England and Germany with the US Army Air Forces. In August 1945, Sergeant Corrigan reported for an administrative assignment to the MFAA Branch of the US Group Control Council where he served at headquarters as a clerk typist. The following December, Corrigan chose to civilianize in order to stay on as a clerk. He conducted general office work, including the important task of maintaining the extensive card catalogue of detailed information on collections of art that had been looted. By October 1949, he was an administrative officer with the Office of the Executive Secretary in Frankfurt, Germany. Corrigan was invited to participate in the first graduating class of the German Language Training Program of the US High Commissioner for Germany (USHCG), a course designed by the Foreign Service Institute to teach conversational German to American soldiers.

Upon his return to the United States, Corrigan became an analyst with the US Army Security Agency of the US Department of Defense, a position he held for nearly two decades until his retirement in 1973.

Gordon Corrigan died in Falls Church, Virginia, on June 16, 1974.