 The James Gahagan School of Fine Arts was opened from 1971–1974 in Woodbury, Vermont, and Gahagan was a guest teacher at Notre Dame University, Indiana, in 1978, Humboldt State University, California, in 1989, and the Vermont Studio Center from 1984 until 1999.He had also become a critic at the International Art Workshop in New Zealand between 1991 and 1992.He died at his home in Woodbury, Vermont.