Hub philanthropist Joe O’Donnell died Sunday at age 79 after a protracted battle with most cancers. He was one in every of Boston’s hard-working and profitable good guys.
He’s additionally a hero within the struggle in opposition to cystic fibrosis.
“It’s amazing to see these kids now breathing like race horses, playing hockey, doing stuff they never dreamed they’d do,” O’Donnell advised the Herald in 2016 on the “Joey” movie displaying about his son’s battle with cystic fibrosis.
“We started with this thing 32 years ago and right now we’re doing over $1 million a year,” O’Donnell advised the Herald that day. “It’s a big, friendly cocktail party and a nice movie and people love it.”
That tally has since topped $500 million by way of The Joey Fund.
The FDA has authorised the medication Orkambi and Kalydeco, vital advances for a big portion of sufferers suffering from CF, the Herald reported.
“Right now, we’ve got a drug for about 60 percent of our kids,” O’Donnell stated again in 2016 of the developments.
O’Donnell attended Malden Catholic High School and Phillips Exeter Academy earlier than enrolling in Harvard College in 1963. After receiving a level in authorities, he earned his M.B.A. in 1971. At Harvard, he was a six-time letter winner in soccer and baseball, and captained the baseball staff as a senior, his Exeter bio states.
O’Donnell based Boston Culinary Group Inc. (initially Boston Concessions Group Inc.) in 1976, which grew into a serious meals service company. The firm merged with Centerplate in 2010, and O’Donnell now serves as chairman. He based Belmont Capital LLC and likewise owns Allied Advertising Agency, the bio provides.
In 1986, the O’Donnells based the Joey Fund in reminiscence of their son, who had died of cystic fibrosis earlier that yr at age 12. O’Donnell can be a trustee of the National Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which twice offered him with the Breath of Life Award, its highest honor.
When former Mayor Tom Menino introduced his retirement in 2012, O’Donnell advised the Herald, “I’ll never forget that night, about five years ago. … You attended two fundraisers, lit seven Christmas trees and made nine speeches. After all that, I was exhausted, but you turned to us and asked, ‘So where are we going to dinner?’”
O’Donnell, who additionally as soon as made a bid for each the Patriots and the Red Sox, was all the time lauded for his large smile.
As the Herald reported in 2015, former Boston sports activities radio legend Eddie Andelman bumped into O’Donnell and advised him he had gathered a busload of his listeners to go to Connecticut in quest of one of the best scorching canine.
Andelman had an concept: Why not do the identical factor to learn the seek for a treatment for cystic fibrosis, a uncommon illness that on the time killed most kids earlier than they reached 18.
“We could call it the Hot Dog Safari,” Andelman stated.
“I told him he was nuts. It was like Jason searching for the golden fleece,” O’Donnell stated. “Eddie was looking for the perfect hot dog.”
The two headed out in quest of that scorching canine the subsequent day.
Funeral info was not instantly accessible.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”