Marty Flaherty -- remembrances from classmates

From Jim Doane: 

Sad news indeed.    In planning our 60th reunion I worked closely with Marty to find a venue for the Saturday night dinner, I used my contacts at

Pawtucket Country Club which we settled on before CV-19 spoiled our in-person reunion.    Being on the ground in RI, he lived in Albion near 

Cumberland, Marty volunteered to visit various restaurants in Pawtucket for a Saturday lunch and a Friday night gathering.    We had settled on

two locations and again the pandemic ruined our plans.     

We spoke frequently and I was in contact with him the most of any of the committee members with the exception of John Di.  We had planned to meet for Awful Awful's at his favorite Newport Creamery in Barrington, since Jeannine and me had reservations in Newport for a week.   Marty in turn promised to take me to his favorite fried clams spot, which he wanted to keep as a surprise.   Due to the pandemic our vacation in RI was cancelled.    

We were on the swim team together at Saints and lost contact after graduation, but reconnected at our 40th and 50th reunions.  Marty was a dear friend

and will be missed by many including me - - may he Rest in Peace. 

Jim 

From Mike McCarthy: 

  I too had several conversations with Marty since the time of our reunion and we had made tentative plans to go out for lunch last summer.

   As he is no longer with us, I don’t think he’d mind if I told you the name of his favorite place for fried clams; Flo’s Clam Shack in Middletown.

  When we get together this winter, we’ll raise a glass in honor of a great friend and classmate. 

Mike

From Pete Healy: 

    Marty was a good friend of mine during our SRA years. He was one of  5 children. His father, Ambrose, died during our sophomore year, a hard thing for a 15-year-old. His brothers Stephen and Bill - both SRA grads - passed at relatively young ages while his sister, Susan, died two years ago of ALS. I believe he has a surviving older sister, Kathleen Magowan, who resides with her family either in Massachusetts or New Jersey.Marty’s uncle, for whom he was named, was a top aide for many years to Peter Gerry, a prominent member of the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island.

    He graduated from Saint Anselm College a year late due to a serious car accident that left him with a life-long limp. He then joined the Peace Corps serving  2 years in the Philippines, surely one of the high points in his life where he developed many lasting friendships.  After his return to the States, he worked in the resort industry and in retail sales for a number of years in New York City.

    Upon his retirement, he returned to RI and quickly became active with his nephews in RI politics and in running a thrift shop for his  Episcopal parish in Providence. He was also kept busy actively and happily assisting our SRA ‘60 Reunion Committee with a variety of chores.

    Marty was a fine gent and loyal SRA alum.  May God bless him! 

 

From Chuck O’Connor: 

Attached is a picture of Marty, Aimee, and her daughter gathered for lunch while preparing videos for our 60th reunion. You will recall that Marty did an enormous amount of legwork in connection with the reunion, both with the SRA staff (see picture below) including when we thought the reunion would be in-person, with several potential vendors. Sadly, Marty is now added to the class necrology for which he prepared the video.

For those of us who went to St. Joseph's before St. Ray's, we've known Marty for 75 years. During junior year at saints, he and I collaborated on a short-lived school newspaper, a mimeographed sheet you probably don't even recall. If you look at the appendix to our yearbook (3 pages from the end), you will see Marty bringing Class Day to a dramatic close with his unique rendition of winged Mercury.

 Marty was planning to come visit Susan and me in DC after the holidays, a reprise of his memorable stay with us several years ago. He was a wonderful and caring friend to me and many of us. He was active with his Albion community and local Episcopal Church after moving back to Rhode Island several years ago. Marty was one-of-a-kind; as Hamlet remarked of his father, "He was a man; take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again." 

God bless Marty,

Chuck

From Bernie Casey: 

Yes, very sad, John.  Is his nephew making the arrangements? I think Marty was the last of his immediate family. I know he lost an older sister (Catherine?) and his older brother Stephen many years ago. They died young.  His younger sister Susan who many of us knew died 2 or 3 years ago. I’m not sure if his younger brother Billy is alive.   

Like Chuck and Ron Mandolfi, I’ve known Marty since first grade. We lost touch after high school. It was only lately, mostly through our reunion, that we renewed contact. I think he was reaching out to establish a network of friends after moving back from NYC to RI. 

Please let me know if you hear any details on the obituary or services. 

Bernie

 

From Reggie MacAmaux 

So sorry to hear this.  Marty and I were supposed to meet this Saturday in Middleboro, MA for a lunch and get together to rehash old times.  We had been planning this for a few weeks. 

In fact, I had just sent him a message when I received the email below. 

Reggie

 

From John DiTomasso

 Dear Friends,

Marty and I were never close friends while at Saints.  The reunions were what brought us closer together.  In recent times he has been battling a number of ailments one of which put him in the hospital for a week or more. Through it all he battled hard and rallied enough to continue his various volunteer efforts. He loved working at The Thrifty Goose, a thrift shop affiliated with St. Martin’s (would you believe) Episcopal Church in Providence.  He recently sent a picture of the men’s department display he had created. 

In September, about the time of our virtual reunion, my wife and I had lunch with Marty at Davenport’s in Cumberland. Afterward, he took us on a tour of some historical spots I never knew existed.  Later we visited his beautiful apartment which was located in an old mill that overlooks the Blackstone River.  Below is a picture of Marty and my wife Joyce outside one of the historical sites we visited. 

While we texted and emailed one another, we both most enjoyed talking on the phone. I’ll miss those conversations. Rest In Peace, Marty.

John

From Dave Shallcross: 

This is really sad news. Marty was more than a classmate to all of us, he was a highly regarded and loyal friend. His contributions to our class reunions were invaluable and he went out of his way to make our reunions successful. Many on the committee made calls and sent emails from the comfort of our homes, Marty got in his car and scouted out locations on our behalf throughout the Blackstone Valley area. To me, that's going the extra mile. 

Marty and I exchanged a few emails over the last couple of months, after our last reunion. Kind of general in nature, although he always had an interest in what you said to him and could add his personal perspective quite easily. He had recently met  Mary Ann Shallcross-Smith (Dr. Daycare around here) at a political event and of course, the Shallcross connection was a topic of interest. Mary Ann had been married to my first cousin, Billy, who passed away in 2005. It was his father, my Uncle Joe, that owned the Davis Drug Store across from St. Joseph's Church. Marty had many recollections to share about his escapades at Davis Drug Store especially around the soda fountain there. We had a lot of laughs just recalling some of them. 

 I think Mary Ann was Marty's representative from Lincoln in the RI Gen Assembly. I recall one conversation when Marty, knowing I had retired from Lincoln Middle School, and being somewhat new to the area after returning from New York, wanted to know about some of the candidates running for office in Lincoln. Both Mary Ann and Jack Lyle were running for the same position, the former as a Democrat and Jack as a Republican. And both had been in the General Assembly in prior years. I didn't take sides since I have great respect for both. But Marty thanked me for what I could provide him. There were other candidates as well but none, in my estimation, matched up well to Mary Ann and Jack. To this day I don't know if he ever called Paul Dalpe who I suggested had a great deal of experience in Lincoln and who was equally versed in the politics there.

 Marty was on the swim team with me and at one point ended up being our only diver.  Few people would dive at the Boy's Club pool because the deepest water in the pool was only 6 feet deep. For someone 5'9" tall, that left a mere 3" of water before your body hit the bottom of the pool. Most teams chose not to contest the diving event. Not Marty. He practiced for hours off that diving board.  Perhaps Jim, Bill, or Mike, will remember how smooth Marty moved through the water. It amazed me that he never made a splash, never created his own resistance to slow him down. When most of us were wailing away creating waves that could slow us down, Marty was smoothly doing his thing as only Marty could. Although we were in most of the same classes over the 3 years at Saints, I suspect that those who knew him from early elementary school at St. Joseph's might tell you that Marty was very comfortable being Marty. He had many, many friends.   

Marty and I were planning to have lunch, 'sometime soon' is how we left it, when the pandemic abated. All we needed to do  was decide on a place and a time. I guess we thought there was still plenty of time. I wish we were right. Let that be a lesson to all of us. 

Marty, may God hold you in the palm of his hand, welcome you home, and reward you for all you did on behalf of so many others.