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Dinner celebates the life and
legacy of Ray Shamie
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from NewsLink, Vol. 4, No. 1, Fall 1999
On October 14, a capacity crowd of family and friends gathered at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel to inaugurate and support the Ray Shamie Center for Civic Enterprise. Most came for another reason as well: To celebrate the life of an accomplished friend.
And they celebrated his life in a way he would have liked: By remembering the values and principles for which he stood, as well as his accomplishments. And by remembering the lessons of his life.
Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe columnist and moderator for the evening, told the audience how on two occasions Ray Shamie had described for him his experience as a 16-year-old busing tables at a New York City automat. He told the story for a purpose, Jacoby said. “He never forgot what a privilege it is to live in a society where busboys at the bottom of the economic ladder can climb all the way to the top.” He ran for political office for much the same reason, Jacoby observed. “Ray went into politics not for himself but for other kids with mops and big dreams.”
Edna Shamie, Ray's wife of almost 57 years, was guest of honor. Joining her were her daughter, Janet Steele, her daughter and son-in-law, Susan and Marc Maynard, and her granddaughter, Diane Steele Williams.
In his remarks, Governor A. Paul Cellucci recalled how Ray Shamie was able to combine remarkable visionary instincts with an uncanny ability to get things done. “He never let go of his lifelong faith in the transforming power of a good idea,” he said. Former Governor Edward J. King, who traveled from his home in Florida to attend the dinner, recalled how Shamie had supported him early in his race for the governorship – even though King was, at the time, a Democrat.
How we deal with poverty in a prosperous nation should be at the top of the American agenda, said featured dinner speaker, Arianna Huffington. We must “identify what works in our community; what has been founded and created by private enterprise, by lone individuals often working against all odds and then ... use government to take it to market,” said Huffington, a nationally syndicated columnist and author. She recalled how Ray Shamie had resolutely supported this idea when she attended a BHI-sponsored forum with him in Washington, D.C. in December 1996. This, she observed, is now the mission of the Shamie Center.
Dinner co-chairs were Wesley Eaton, retired Metal Bellows Treasurer and Comptroller; Joseph Malone, former Massachusetts Treasurer; James Radley, President of Eastern Casualty Insurance Co.; and Dorothea Vitrac, BHI fundraiser.
The dinner highlight was the presentation of the 1999 Ray Shamie Visionary Award. In presenting the award to Edna Shamie, David Tuerck, BHI Executive Director, described a partnership that began during World War II, flourished through numerous business ventures and two political campaigns, and was marked by a shared commitment to individual liberty and responsibility.
“In our last conversation,” Tuerck said, “I told Ray we wanted to do something in his honor. He said that wasn't necessary. And we agreed to disagree. Then Ray told me what he thought was important: `You just keep going.'”
Thus, another Shamie lesson and perhaps the best one of all.
NewsLink is the quarterly newsletter of the Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research at Suffolk University. © 1996-2002. All rights reserved.
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