Photos

1 Margot and Bill Connell

2 Bill

Bill Connell (1938-2001) was one of the best stories ever told in this town. In his 63 years, this son of a Lynn bus driver made a fortune and gave a fortune away.

He was a confidant of some of the most powerful players in Boston. But you almost never read about any of it in the papers, and that was just the way he wanted it. In a town full of big egos, Bill Connell always had his own well in check.

Connell died of cancer last August at his home in Swampscott. He will be remembered as an astute businessman who made it onto the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans by betting on Rust Belt America in the 80's, when others were writing it off. Many have made good counter-cyclical bets, but what set him apart was the confidence others had in his judgment-and his commitment to giving back.

The son of Irish immigrants, he was active in Irish-American affairs and was a loyal supporter and director on the board of The American Ireland Fund. He chaired the celebrated Boston Dinner in 1988 and set up a permanent fund with the organization. He also supported the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, and the Democratic Party.

"Charities should find me", Connell once told Forbes magazine in a rare interview. "I was trained that even when you didn't have, you gave. My mother and father, who had little, wouldn't think of a Sunday without giving to the offering plate. You come into the world with nothing and you leave with nothing."

Just before his death for instance, Connell committed $10 million to Harvard Business School where he received his master's in business administration, $10 million to the Boston College School of Nursing, and a substantial gift to St. Mary's High School in Lynn, where he graduated in 1955, friends say.

Connell was an influential, if invisible, power broker, particularly among his fellow Irish Americans, who still dominate Boston's executive suites. He was a key board member who prodded both Fleet's Terry Murray and BankBoston's Chad Gifford to combine their banks. In a rare public effort, Connell was a part of the tight-knit group of executives who helped keep the New England Patriots in Foxborough. "A wise, modest man; extremely fair and balanced," Murray said.

Connell liked to joke that he was a junk man. He built his company, Connell Limited Partnership, out of gritty industrial companies that Ogden Corp. dumped when it believed the service business was the future. Connell's industrial orphans were hardly sexy - recycled aluminum, low-tech metal boxes - but he had doubled annual sales to more than $1 billion.

This was a kid who assumed he would be working for just these kinds of old manufacturers, not running them. Growing up in West Lynn, he started selling newspapers at age 10, worked at a drugstore in high school, and assumed that an apprenticeship at the Lynn General Electric Plant was the logical next step. His father, an Irish immigrant with 6 years of formal education, had other ideas.

So Connell enrolled in Boston College. He wanted to study physics, but after a nun gave him a bad-conduct grade following a milk fight in high school, the priest in charge of administrations at BC sentenced him to study business. "I say a prayer of thanks to that priest every day," Connell told Forbes.

This is a guy who grew up to become one of the wealthiest men in America and, according to me, one of the nicest," says his friend Jack Connors, head of the advertising agency Hill Holliday. It is a remarkable story, one with lessons for us all. And those lessons have almost nothing to do with getting rich. To quote Bill Connell, husband and father of six, one more time:

"People are rich when you have what you need in the world. A nice family, a good education, to participate in the community. To see your children do well. That is rich."

- Written by Steve Bailey
This article appears courtesy of The Boston Globe

THE AIF BOSTON DINNER CHAIRPERSONS HAD THIS TO SAY OF THEIR FELLOW CHAIRMAN:

"I have lost a true friend. His smile, his wit, his integrity will never be forgotten."
- Robert P. Fitzgerald (1982)

"When calling Bill to ask for help with a charity, his answer consistently was, 'May the line to my door never get short.'"
- Thomas J. Flatley (1983)

"In the halls of heaven there is great rejoicing because you are amongst the saints! Bill, you left us too soon. We'll remember always the good you did and the difference you made in the lives of those in need."
- Charles & Janice Fox (1984)

"There are at least three things we liked about Bill Connell. He was always there when you needed him, he liked to laugh and he always remained a Democrat."
- John & Diddy Cullinane (1985)

"The most Limited Partner with unlimited friends."
- Richard D. Driscoll (1986)

"Many of us knew Bill Connell and we're all the richer for it. More than anyone I have ever known, Bill truly appreciated his entire life and the many gifts he received during the course of it. It has been said that, 'the best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.' Bill's life was the Niagara Falls of such acts."
- John M. Connors, Jr. (1987)

Bill Connell had many assets. Amongst them-he never forgot where he came from, and made it his business, and considered it an opportunity, to help those in need. Most of us can recognize problems. Bill had the instinctual ability to solve them."
- James F. Cleary (1989)

"Gods blessing's to Bill, a true steward of God's gifts, may he rest in peace."
- John A. McNeice, Jr. (1990) & Mrs. McNeice

"Bill was a great role model for us all. It will be difficult to fill the leadership void that was created at his passing. We will miss this great Bostonian."
- Thomas P. O'Neill 111 (1991)

"Bill Connell was the type of person everyone could emulate. He set a wonderful example as a businessman, community contributor, father and husband. I viewed him with a combination of admiration and affection and am honored that he called me friend."
- Paul C. O'Brien (1992)

"'The 'Desiderata' is a poem written in 1927 by Max Ehrmann. It embodies much of Bill's philosophy of life, especially it's opening paragraph which says:
'Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly.' Did he ever!"
- Patrick J. Purcell (1993)

"Bill Connell was not only a close friend but a wise and treasured colleague who was a great source of counsel to me throughout the nineties as I settled into the Boston business community.
- Terrence Murray (1994)

"Bill Connell was the happiest person I have ever known. He loved his wife, his children, his grandchildren, and his friends. He loved to learn, work, compete, play sports, to watch sporting events, to tell stories, to listen to others and to laugh. He loved being an American and having roots in Ireland. He loved his hometowns of Lynn and Swampscott. He loved his God, his Roman Catholic faith, and his alma mater, Boston College. He loved to help others by his actions and his financial support. Bill achieved so much because Bill loved so much."
- Peter S. Lynch (1995)

"A friend and advisor, no matter what else was going on, Bill always took the time to listen, give his advice, most often in the form of a humorous story - if Bill had written the New Testament the parables would be even more memorable."
- Edmund F. Kelly (1996)

"I miss him - all that knew him miss Bill. Boston just doesn't seen to be as much fun without him - not as optimistic, not as many stories, not as many jokes - missing a catalyst - not as human. Bill was at the center of so many things including The American Ireland Fund. We'll all have to work a little harder to make good things happen in our community without him."
- Frank Doyle (1997)

"As a very able business executive, as a major philanthropist, as a leader of a devoted family, as a fun and loyal friend - Bill was all of these and more. He taught us that success, kindness and fun can and should be part of the same package."
- Chad Gifford (1998)

"When I think about Bill, and I do often, I think about a gentleman, generosity, great jokes, golf, God, and BC. One of the nicest guys I've met - he always made me feel good and welcome."
- John J. O'Connor (1999)

"I served as last year's dinner chair. Everything had gone well in the preparations and we had raised a great deal of money for such an important cause. But as I entered the ballroom on the evening of the dinner, I was alone, the room was full of previous dinner chairs and thousands of people. For a moment, the night felt beyond me. And just as quickly, there was Bill Connell, warm and generous in his usual way, always kind, who along with Margot ushered me into the room, offered me a glass, and we were all off to a great night."
- Anne Finucane (2000)

"I met Bill Connell three years ago at my first board meeting of the Kennedy Library Foundation. He immediately came over to me, congratulated me on joining the board and offered to give insights about the Library and any other help that I might need. His warmth and enthusiasm made me feel as if I had known him twenty years."
- Jack Manning, General Chairman (2001)

AIF STAFF HAD THIS TO SAY OF THEIR LOYAL FRIEND

"A birdie on the short 18th in Portmarnock followed by a long lunch and Bill was in heaven. The simple things in life. Hundreds of stories and lots of laughs - how he touched the lives of all he met."
- Kingsley Aikins, President & CEO

"Bill Connell was always the very first person to come up to me at the end of every dinner and tell me what a great dinner it was and how each year it gets better. No matter what happened that particular evening I could always count on his enthusiastic support as my first critique. I will miss that and I will miss him."
- Lesley King, National Events Director

This article first appeared in Connections Winter 2002 issue