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When Gerry Dunleavy was growing up near the Cliffs of Mohr in Ireland, he probably never thought he’d be a successful builder in America. But he came to Winchester in 1978 because his job for an electrical engineering company transferred him to the U.S. for work.
While visiting his local cousin, Dunleavy was at the Swim Club and heard an Irish woman talking. Toni Boyne was a Dubliner and a reader and Gerry married her.
That was back in Ireland in 1988. Toni got a job at the Manchester-by-the-Sea Montessori School, and eventually, the Dunleavys bought it.
Their first child, John, was born in 1991 with Down syndrome, and his proud father says he was the keynote speaker at a Down syndrome conference in front of 700 people.
Their second son, Michael, came along in 1994 and the Dunleavys had three more children. When Michael was 8 years old, he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.
“Two weeks before he died,” says Dunleavy, “Michael had a lemonade stand and raised $28. I asked him what he was doing and he said, ‘Collecting money for brain tumor research.’ That $28 has since become $3 million.”
According to Dunleavy, it started when Michael’s second grade teacher, Kerry Brodeur, at the Vinson-Owen School organized a “5K walk and roll” fundraiser.
Dunleavy asked himself at that time, “OK, we can raise money, but where should the checks go?” So he formed the Michael Dunleavy Foundation.
“We thought if we can save a child’s life out of our family’s anguish by funding research — well, you can’t put a price on it,” he says.
“And Michael understood money,” adds Dunleavy. “He told me that compound interest is the greatest force in the universe. I bought a boat to use at our summer house and he asked me if it was paid for. When I told him we were still $10,000 short, he handed me a $100 bill, out of his savings which we’d funded.”
Dunleavy is pleased to note the Mass. General Hospital clinic, founded in Michael’s name, has developed a protocol for treating this particular form of cancer.
“You know,” he says, “it’s unusual for a foundation to last 22 years, but the people in Winchester have been generous and we’ve become closer.
“When faced with this type of situation,” he adds, “we lean on each other. The reward of starting the foundation hasn’t eliminated the pain, but it helps to ease it.”
