Tom Butler: All About Community

Tom Butler has spent his entire life making Boston a better place to live – and to visit.

As Director of Government and External Affairs at Massachusetts Port Authority, the agency that oversees Logan International Airport and other facilities, Butler is the agency’s go-to guy for making sure that the economic growth spawned by Massport benefits both the tourism industry and the local communities directly affected by its operations.

Logan International Airport, after all, is the region’s busiest airport, with non-stop service to more than 100 domestic and international destinations. Last year over 28 million travelers passed through the airport — business travelers, conventioneers, family vacationers, college students and tourists from across the world.

“Tom understands how important Massport is to the tourist industry in this state…and how critical we are to the jobs and economy of New England,” says Thomas J. Kinton, Jr. CEO and Executive Director of Massport. “He works tirelessly on Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill to make sure Massport is able to connect the people of this region with markets far away.

“But at the same time, Tommy reminds us all at Massport that we are responsible for preserving the quality of life for those who live nearby.”

“Tom is a visionary leader who has become the public face of Massport with community leaders, elected officials and with national and regional associations,” says Patrick Moscaritolo, Executive Director and CEO of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

It was Moscaritolo, while working at Massport earlier in his career, who hired Butler in 1987 as the agency’s government and community relations director.

“What many people may not know is the role Tom played in getting Massport into the marketing and promotion of our region’s visitor industry,” Moscaritolo says. “Years later that’s exactly what has occurred and you see that in Massport’s role in driving international visitors to the region and in the cruise ship business that Massport has built.”

The cruise ship trade is a profitable new venture in the region’s tourism efforts, with over 320,000 passengers coming to the newly renovated cruise terminal in South Boston each year, according to Massport officials.

On the community side, Butler and his staff of six work closely with three Boston neighborhoods – South Boston, Charlestown and East Boston – and neighboring towns – Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop, making sure that the people who live, go to school and work underneath the flight patterns coming in and out of the airport are not overlooked.

“There are few people I have met in and out of government that are more effective in getting things done than Tom Butler,” says Lt. Governor Tim Murray. “This, coupled with his sense of humor and Irish wit, is why so many people enjoy working with him on issues big and small. At his core, Tom Butler is all about helping people.”

Southie Pride

Massport’s motto for community relations – Strive to be a Good Neighbor – happens to be the kind of mantra you’ll hear repeatedly in South Boston, a place Butler proudly calls home.

Born and raised in Southie, Butler attended the John P. Bigelow Grammar School on East 4th Street and South Boston High School, followed by Boston State College. His parents Daniel and Anna (Shaughnessy) raised their six children seeped in the traditions of family, faith and community upon which the town’s distinct character is forged, according to Butler’s cousin Brian Wallace, South Boston’s State Representative.

“My grandmother and Tommy’s grandmother were sisters who came from Carraroe just outside Galway,” Wallace says. “I grew up on West 5th and Tommy grew up on West 7th, and we used to sit on our fathers’ laps when we were little kids, where we learned the Irish wit and wisdom from Big Danny Butler and Bubby Wallace. They filled our houses with stories and memories to last a lifetime.”

Butler’s parents belonged to the South Boston Citizens Association, S.B. Irish-American Society, and Castle Island Association, and were always ready to help their neighbors in need. Tom has continued that family tradition, volunteering for causes in support of the town’s schools and senior centers and dressing up as Santa Claus for special needs children in South Boston.

And for nearly three decades Butler has been a community voice regarding large-scale construction projects such as Boston’s Big Dig, Tip O’Neill Tunnel, and the Seaport District. In that role, Butler earned praise in a Boston Globe editorial for his reasonable position that “economic growth and neighborhood stability need not be in conflict.”

But it is Butler’s work as a volunteer, organizer, advocate and fundraiser for South Boston that rightly earns him the respected mantle of community leader, a coveted title in a neighborhood of formidable leaders.

“Tom is my generation’s personification of what our community, South Boston, has created throughout its history – true leaders who give back to it much more than they took from it, not just with their generosity but with their time, their wisdom, their hearts and souls,” says James E. Rooney, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority who grew up with Butler.

South Boston’s State Senator Jack Hart says, “In a town with a history of legendary names in government and politics, I cannot think of another person who has not held elected office that has done more for the South Boston community than Tommy Butler,” whose son Tom Jr. works in constituent services for Hart.

“Tommy Butler represents all that is special about the Irish and South Boston: generosity, loyalty and wit,” says Ray Flynn, former mayor of Boston, US Ambassador to the Vatican and Southie resident. “His fierce commitment to his family and community is legendary.”

Indeed, two of Butler’s abiding interests – Irish heritage and American history – readily find their nexus in a town like South Boston. “Tommy is Mr. Dependable, always willing to help everyone else,” says John “Wacko” Hurley, longtime organizer of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade who serves on the parade committee with Butler.

Butler also helps organize the Revolutionary War ceremonies held to commemorate Evacuation Day, when on March 17, 1776. That’s when colonial troops aimed a battery of canons from Dorchester Heights in South Boston forced the British Navy to flee Boston Harbor. The secret password that day, Butler loves to remind people, was St. Patrick, a tribute to the feast day and to the number of Irish soldiers in George Washington’s army.

That sense of history and knowledge of the town’s rich tradition are things Butler brings to his work in the community and his work at Massport. But as importantly, Butler is a very likeable guy.

“Tommy is a man of tremendous heart who has never forgotten where he came from,” says Senator Hart. “He is a kind and gentle man full of wisdom and sage advice.”

“Tommy is always the Son of South Boston and the neighborhoods,” says Tom Kinton. “He never lets me forget that what Massport does affects people who live near us every day, and so their concerns must always be our concerns.”

Jim Rooney sums up what a lot of people throughout greater Boston know and appreciate, “To know Tommy is to love Tommy.”

Massport.com