About Us
Board of Directors
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Samuel Bays Edward Collins Allison Driscoll, Esq. Ronald Geddes John P. Grady Jeffrey Gray Esq. William Havemeyer Esq. William Stenson M.D. Fredi Walker David Black, Esq. |
BACK ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: Fredi Walker, John Grady, Executive Director Thomas Duffly, Arthur Borden, Administrative Director Frederick Newton FRONT ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: William Stenson, M.D., David Black, Esq., Ronald Geddes, William Havemeyer, Esq. and Samuel Bays Not pictured Edward Collins, Allison Driscoll, Esq. and Jeffrey Gray, Esq. |
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His Passion to Make a Difference Helps Hope House
Board of Directors member Ron Geddes bridles at the suggestion that he is the most qualified person around to hold the official title of "Mr. Hope House." Even the fact of his nearly 40 years of involvement with the organization will not persuade him otherwise.
Rather, he quickly shifts the discussion to its founder, Jack Donahue, as the only person truly deserving of the title. Jack was a compassionate visionary who opened his heart and his South End living room to homeless alcoholics in 1955. He went on to purchase the first, of a total of five, rooming houses in the South End of Boston that would become Hope House; one of the country's first residential treatment programs.
"Jack was the real Mr. Hope House," Ron says. "Jack Donahue taught the rest of us how to build, maintain and grow the substance abuse treatment community." Until Donahue's untimely death in 1986, Ron says, "Jack showed us with his kind, gentle yet confident manner how to collaborate with others in building a true ministry of social justice."