The following is from a Memorial Service for Pat & Ray Rodrigues held on
Friday, June 27th 2008.

 

First and foremost I want to offer my heartfelt condolences to Linda, Judy & Peter and your entire family for the lost of your parents.   I want to thank you for allowing us to come together here today to comfort each other in our sorrow,  to share our memories and our love for these two very special people and to remember and reflect  on  their  life’s work of service to our children, families and community. I want you to know how honored I am to have been asked to share my memories with you today.   I want you to know how truly fortunate I am to have known both Pat & Ray.   

I met Pat almost 18 years ago when I interviewed for the executive director’s position with her and Joe Gallo.  Mack Donnelley had past away in February of that year and Pat was serving as Interim Director not to mention program director and summer camp director. It was a great interview.  It just felt like I knew Pat forever.  We laughed our way around the building sharing stories of our Boys & Girls Club experiences.    Meeting Joe Gallo, Bobbie Carnevale and especially Pat, made Ludlow a very easy choice for me.    

In reflecting back, although she never complained, it had to be a very difficult time for her. She had lost a great friend in Mack Donnelly, had a very young and inexperienced staff, and was dealing with a new board with new ideas and new ways of doing business and now me.  Pat could have folded up the tent and gone home.  But she didn’t.  I am forever thankful.                  

Pat made my transition to Ludlow and my new role as executive director an easy one.  She introduced me to everyone like a long lost friend.  Thanks to her I felt I knew these people almost forever.   Today I call many of these same people my friends.    I didn’t have to worry about the program because Pat was in control. I was able to concentrate on learning my new role and working with my board chair, Bobbie Carnevale.  I can tell you those first few weeks I was nervous just opening the mail.  It was a great situation for a young executive.   I was surrounded by the best of people. 

We had such fun.  Pat included me in every aspect of the program.  I had the opportunity to greet the kids each day after school,  teach a new game, conduct a few of my favorite  summer camp special events like our Indian week and Olympic week , test her limits with field trips  like our executive camp out and Mt Tom Waterslide and even sing an Irish song or two.   Pat loved the Rag Shag Parade, our Christmas Dinner with the Senior Center, and Friday at Streeter & Holland State Park, vacation weeks and summer camp, One of Pat’s favorites was the summer camp skits.   Every group had to develop a skit and perform it on their assigned week.  It was almost guaranteed that senior staff would be prime targets for senior counselors.  The best one, I remembered, was Pat portrayed as the Energizer bunny, right down to the wig and the shorts and the drum.  It was a perfect.  You should have heard her laugh.   My favorite Pat Phrase – Flush your flushes.   It got pretty basic sometimes!!!!

It was all about our kids.  That was always Pat’s bottom line.  She was no nonsense and tough but always caring, loving and fair.   Just in my five years working with Pat – I can’t tell how many lives she touched.  Many of our kids began in kindergarten and continued right through middle school in our after school program.  The majority of our after school and summer camp staff were kids who grew up at the Club, became a junior leader, CIT and than senior staff and some even joined our professional staff.  Pat was responsible for creating that legacy. It is something that will always be a part of how we do business. It demonstrates the incredible impact that we had and continue to have.   Just as an example Nicole Mercier, now a teacher at Minnechaug Regional HS, will return this summer as a senior counselor.  She is one of the very best with our kids. I can’t tell you in how many capacities she has work for us – counselor, lifeguard, membership clerk. She grew up at the Club coming to camp each summer.  Her Mom, Corrine was a single Mom and depended on the Club – Nicole is still with us today - She was one of Pat’ kids.  I know Pat would be so proud of her. 

Sue Coughlin, Mack Donnelly and Pat were responsible for developing the “Latchkey Program” as Pat liked to call it.  It was a major shift from the traditional drop in boys and girls club program but it was the need that could not be ignored with the growing number of single and two working parent families.  The world as we new it growing up had certainly changed. Change isn’t always for the better.  For the first time our kids were forced to come to the Club rather than want to come.  Pat said it was our job to make it up to them.  When we saw our kids crying because they don’t want to leave or telling their parents to come back later, she knew we were getting the job done!!!!   It was a major transition. The Club was recreating itself moving from a drop in club to custodial care – Pat saw that it was what the community needed.   Today, those same programs are the very foundation of who we are today – we have Pat to thank for that.

I remember after one United Way Tour, one of their volunteers seeing Pat in action with our kids in our after school program, said to me – Boy, I wish my grandchildren had the opportunity to be with her – she’s wonderful!!!   She was just that!!! 

In working with Pat it wasn’t long before you met Ray.  It was easy to see what a great relationship they had. How committed they were to one another, to their children and their grandchildren. One summer Peter’s boys, Mitchell and Danny joined us for the summer.  I don’t know who had a better time Pat & Ray or the boys.   I can tell you the relationship Ray and Peter had is a father-son relationship that any father or son could hope for. You could see that it was very special.  

Working for the Boys & Girls Club is a way of life not a job.  It is almost impossible not to involve your family. That was certainly the case with Ray.  A member of the Club’s Alumni, a corporator and a dedicated volunteer – Ray was involved in helping with the Club’s many fundrasiers over the years including the Christmas Bazaar, Pancake Breakfast, Spring Ball, golf tournaments and even Bingo.  It was a family affair with the Pat and Ray working and volunteering and their kids and grand kids participating in programs.   

On top of that, Ray had a very successful real estate and Insurance business, served as a member of Ludlow Hospital and Ludlow Country Club Board of Directors, coached little league baseball, was very active in the Portuguese community and in his spare time liked to golf a little.   Ray was also quite the craftsmen. Ray and his brother, Candy built their own homes together.  I saw first- hand Peter and Ray’s handy-work on their new home in Rockport.  It was beautiful. Thanks to the skills and the interest he developed working with his Dad, Peter has made construction his life work and he has now passed that on to his son, Danny.    

Ray, like my Dad, was very proud of his military service during WWII.  Peter told me Ray endured the battle of the Bulge, liberated a concentration camp and held the Bridge at Buchenwald.  That in itself is a lifetime worth of achievement.   You could call it distinguished but in reality it was heroic.  Listening to my Dad talking about his war experience, you realize that the peace and prosperity we grew up with is something we should never take for granted.  Ray and his generation sacrificed segments of their lives to preserve and protect our freedom and many more made the ultimate sacrifice.  I have promised myself that before I die I will make the visit to Washington to the WWII Memorial to pay tribute to my Dad and his military service while I’m there I will do the same for Ray.  

Personally, Pat and Ray were so good to my family.  My daughter, Marjorie and my son Jimmy grew up under Pat’s wing at the Club They both have so many fond memories of both Pat and Ray and our visits to their homes both in Springfield and Rockport.   I was so happy for them when they retired to Rockport.  They had dedicated their lives to the Club and our community and were now going to enjoy their families.   My wife Sarah and I always enjoyed our visits with Pat & Ray in Rockport.  They just made you feel at home and we would laugh our time away.  One visit we had taken our camper to a camp ground in Gloucester.  Typically campgrounds by the ocean are not the best but this one was by far the worst. We had planned ahead inviting Pat & Ray to an old fashion camp barbecue. We were horrified when we saw the campground.  Pat & Ray didn’t blink. We had a great time.  It was always great spending time with them and enjoying their company.  We just didn’t do it enough.

On behalf of our Board of Directors, our professional staff and generations of children and families who have benefited from the Club, I want to thank both Pat and Ray for their dedicated commitment and service to the Club and our entire community.  We certainly owe them a debt of gratitude.  I want to thank their family for sharing them with us for so many years.   

I want to end with an Irish Blessing – Pat & Ray – May the road rise to meet you, may the wind to be always at your back and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand – God bless you, Pat & Ray.

Jim Moriarty

To view our tribute to Pat Rodrigues, click here.