Thomas J Flatley:THOMAS J (Tom) Flatley, who died last month at the age of 76, was the ultimate Irish emigrant made good. He grew up on a small farm near Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, before leaving for the United States at 18 where he was to eventually build a commercial real estate empire estimated at $1.3 billion some years ago.
Although ranked on Forbes magazine in 2006 as 279th on the list of 400 wealthiest people in the world, Flatley is best remembered in his adopted Boston as a philanthropist.
Over the years, he was a founding member and generous benefactor to the America Ireland Fund.
Mindful of the plight of other less fortunate Irish immigrants to the States than himself, he was a driving force in the establishment of the Morrison and Donnelly visa systems in the 1980s.
Organisations and groups who benefited from his wonderful virtue of philantrophism included the New England Shelter for the Homeless, the Salvation Army, Boston College, where he served as a trustee, and the Irish third world relief organisation, Goal.
Respect for previous generations of Irish immigrants and awareness of the hardship they had endured, led him in the 1990s to raise $2 million to build Boston City's first Irish Famine Memorial and fund ceremonies in the city to mark the 150th anniversary of the Famine.
Although his parents, John and Margaret (Maggie) Flatley, hoped at one stage that Tom would take over the family farm at Treenkeel, Kiltimagh, their youngest son had other ideas. He emigrated to New York at 18 after realising he was entitled to American citizenship as his father had fought with the US army in the first World War.
His first job was at a German deli in the Bronx but he later enlisted in the army serving in Korea for a brief period. After leaving the army, he chose to live in Boston rather than New York as it was "small and manageable" a place where "one could have your own identity". Construction quickly became Flatley's forte. In the late 1950s, he became the founding president of the Flatley company and embarked on increasingly lucrative construction projects in Boston.
He eschewed skyscraper contracts specialising instead on less complex smaller buildings in the suburbs which involved less trouble and expense than city-based projects.
Soon Flatley was building shopping centres, offices and apartment complexes all over Boston as well as industrial parks and various healthcare facilities and hotels. At Braintree he constructed the Sheraton Tara Hotel, one of a number of hotels he designed to resemble the castles of his Irish homeland.
By the 1980s, the hard-working entrepreneur, who often worked 80-hour weeks, had 4,800 people in his employment. Ten years later this had risen to 6,000 but a weakening US economy meant he had to shed one-tenth of his workforce, not an easy decision given his kind and altruistic nature.
Towards the end of his life, as he battled with illness, he began to shed his business interests although he continued to work as much as possible.
"When I leave this world, I don't want to take anything with me," he said in a rare interview with the Boston Globe. "I will wind up with 36 square feet." He moved his parents, John and Maggie, to Boston in the 1950s and the couple remained there for the rest of their lives.
On his office desk, he kept a photo of his mother, his "greatest educator." She always told him "not to spend what he didn't have". Flatley heeded his mother's advice. He made it a rule never to borrow more than 40 per cent of any property's value.
Frugality was at the centre of his business and private life. At The Flatley Co, even the smallest purchases had to be approved by the "boss". He often boasted that he liked to "fly coach" rather than taking the more expensive airline option.
Flatley maintained regular contact with his native place and in 2006 was delighted to be made Grand Marshal of the St Patrick's Day Parade in Kiltimagh. It was a homecoming, he said later, which touched his heart. Deeply religious and a non-smoker or drinker, Flatley was a daily Mass-goer at St Agatha's Catholic Church in Milton, a suburb of Boston. He is survived by his wife, Charlotte (nee McLeod); five children, and 18 grandchildren.
Thomas J. Flatley: born August 30th, 1931; died May 17th, 2008