Richie Cuffe was a special kind of friend.
That’s the consensus of opinion when it came to the lawyer and philanthropist who died last week from complications stemming from a stroke he suffered in 2015 while in France visiting World War II memorials.
Thomas Richard Cuffe was many things. He was an attorney, a one-time U.S. Army Ranger, and a benefactor whose work with St. Mary’s High School helped pull it out of a serious financial crisis back in the late 1980s and put it on the road to solvency.
But most of all, said Maryanne Rooney-Hegan, who worked closely with him at St. Mary’s as the school’s chief fundraiser, he was a friend.
“He was probably the nicest person you could ever meet,” she said. “If you were his friend, it was a gift.”
After graduating from St. Mary’s, Cuffe went to Providence College, where he enrolled in Officer Candidate School. After a stint in Vietnam, and spending four years in the Carter White House, Cuffe returned to Massachusetts, first in Boston and then in Lynn.
“When Richie came back to Lynn, he got hold of me and wanted me to help engage graduates,” she said. “St. Mary’s had fallen on hard times financially. His leadership came from the fact that he was genuine … his loyalty, his love of the school, everything about him. He did what he did because he really wanted to.
“And people were just drawn to him,” she said. “You couldn’t say ‘no’ to him, and he wouldn’t say ‘no’ to you.”
Another person who Cuffe took under his wing at St. Mary’s was Marnie Moore, daughter of James Moore, one of Cuffe’s partners at Bradley Moore Primason Cuffe & Weber LLC.
“I really loved Richie, at the office and even at my St. Mary’s stuff,” she said. “He introduced me to the formal board at St. Mary’s. I was honored he wanted to talk to me and thought I’d be a nice fit. He was a wonderful mentor to me.”
Her father has the same memories.
“I was lucky enough to be his friend for 64 years and his partner for 24 years,” James Moore said. “He handled his friends and clients with unmatched kindness and concern. He was always interested in them, not himself.”
Moore and his daughter were always impressed with Cuffe’s genial, gentle demeanor.
“He was always a gentleman,” Marnie Moore said.
James Moore remembers meeting Cuffe for the first time when he was in the seventh grade attending his cousin Loretta (O’Donnell) Cuffe’s eighth-grade graduation party.
“That’s when I first met him,” he said. “He was standing up tall, dressed impeccably, neat as a pin, polite as polite can be. And he never changed. Ever.
“I never met his mother or father,” Moore said. “But they must have been something. Richie couldn’t have been born that way.”
Webb Primason said that while he didn’t know Cuffe as a friend as much as he did as a partner, he could tell by the way others regarded him that he was special. Especially, Primason said, when it came to St. Mary’s people.
“He made a lot of friends through his business connections,” Primason said. “He had lots of friends. Jimmy (Moore) and I used to eat lunch at Brother’s Deli. We sat at a particular table next to the window and people would stop by our table.
“When the news hit that Richie had a stroke, everybody in the place came by to ask about him. This happened for months, even years. They were very concerned. I’d always ask Jimmy ‘who’s that?’ and Jimmy would always say ‘someone from St. Mary’s.'”
Rev. Brian Flynn, pastor at St. Mary of the Sacred Heart Parish (formerly simply St. Mary’s), said Cuffe helped the school stay within legal bounds and maintain its Catholic connection.
“He was on the Governance and Catholic Identity committees,” Fr. Flynn said. “He was the right person for both of those committees. As a school, you needed to do things right legally. There is a governance piece to it. He made sure everything was being done properly.
“The Catholic Identity piece is even more important,” he said. “He had such an interest in what was going on, to make sure the school was maintaining its Catholic identity. It really brought out two great aspects of Richie. The legal thing — making sure everything was done well ― and the Catholic identity. That was a great love for him. He enjoyed being part of that.”
“The world and, in particular our community, has lost a special gift from God,” said Raymond Bastarache, former head of school at St. Mary’s. “To be considered a friend of T. Richard Cuffe was a great honor.”