Community Honors Industrial Park Visionary

LITTLETON — Bringing drive and foresight, Paul McGoldrick was a pivotal man at a critical time.

Not long after his arrival in town, Littleton's shoe industry economy would be on its way out, leaving what could have been a void.

McGoldrick was the catalyst behind the creation of the Littleton Industrial Park, which began in the mid-1970s with $15,000 in seed money that had squeaked to town meeting victory by just one vote.

"The rest is history," said Ed Hennessey, a longtime friend of McGoldrick's who serves on the Littleton Industrial Development Corp. (LIDC).

Today, the industrial park supports nearly two dozen businesses that employ an upward of 1,500 area residents and generate an annual payroll north of $60 million.

On Monday morning, on the Industrial Park Road bridge at Meadow Street that bears his name, friends, community members, and a state official turned out for the dedication of a new plaque that honors McGoldrick, who had served as president of the nonprofit, all-volunteer LIDC for more than 25 years and died a decade ago at the age of 80.

"Who was Paul?" asked Chad Stearns, the current LIDC president. "What did he do? Paul passed away in 2015 after quite a career in Littleton. He moved to Littleton in 1964 with New England Telephone. He really just fell in love with the area. A few years later, he started his own business in financial planning and life insurance and he had that for almost 50 years."

As the shoe industry declined, McGoldrick and a group of others put forth their vision for an industrial park.

"If anyone knew Paul, he was the driving force when he had something on his mind or wanted people to get involved in something or wanted something to happen," said Stearns. "He always wanted it for the benefit of the community."

After a half century in Littleton, the industrial park is on its fourth phase of expansion.

"Paul was there for the first three phases," said Stearns. "He had his life insurance business and his financial planning, but he probably put as much time into LIDC as he did his own business. I think we can see that today with all the businesses and the road infrastructure. Everything that is here, Paul had quite a bit to do with."

Before Monday's ceremony, Stearns did more research about McGoldrick and found another description of him — "dogged persistence."

"If he had something he wanted or was passionate about, there was no stopping him," said Stearns.

That's a sentiment that U.S. senators as well as funding partners would agree with, he said.

One story about McGoldrick revolves around when the industrial park was just taking off, when he was skiing on Cannon Mountain and was sharing a chairlift with the president of Burndy, the manufacturer of tools, connectors, and fittings in the industrial park.

"By the end of the ride, he had a meeting set up for Burndy to come here, and the rest is history," said Stearns. "Burndy was our first tenant."

"We sold the land to Burndy for $50,000 and spent $55,000 to put the road in," said Hennessey. "We were happy to do it."

When Stearns joined the Littleton Rotary Club in 2008, McGoldrick, a fellow Rotarian, was at his table during Stearns' second meeting. By the end of the meeting, Stearns began his contributions toward the Rotary Foundation's Paul Harris fellowship, which recognizes those contributing $1,000 or more.

"He certainly had me in with my donation, but he matched my donation," said Stearns. "He gave a lot of time to everything he was in, whether LIDC or the Littleton Area Rotary Club. He was a big part of getting the charitable fund started as well as the lobster fest."

McGoldrick was also a big advocate for the Mayhew Program, a local camp that serves at-risk boys in New Hampshire.

"He was persistent, but he was certainly giving at the same time," said Stearns. "He was just a great man."

Hennessey, a Littleton selectman, knew McGoldrick for the better part of 50 years and is proud to call him a great friend.

"He worked his tail off," said Hennessey, who pointed to the last line of the bronze plaque — "Paul McGoldrick wrote the recipe for community service."

"He worked for years to get the industrial park bridge in," said Hennessey. "They finally got the bridge in and thankfully dedicated the bridge in Paul's name. He used to say, 'I don't know how people can sleep at night if they haven't done something today to make the town better than it was yesterday.' And he lived that way. I've known many people in my time who contributed a lot to this town, but I don't know anyone who worked tirelessly like Paul did … The town should be very thankful."

McGoldrick was also a big advocate for the police department and its new police station on West Main Street.

"Many of you don't know this, but Paul was instrumental in our new police department," said Littleton Police Chief Paul Smith. "He was one of the driving forces in support of our PD and getting it moved to the location we're at, and we're very thankful for the time he put in there. A lot of people don't know it because he did it behind the scenes, and he never looked for accolades. I appreciate Paul very much."

Beyond the Littleton area, McGoldrick played a key role in driving economic development.

Benoit Lamontagne, North Country industrial agent and business retention and expansion specialist for the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs, said McGoldrick played a role in revitalizing Colebrook when Lamontagne and others were trying to initiate economic development efforts there and were becoming discouraged that nothing was moving forward.

A vision there was also the creation of an industrial park.

A call was placed to McGoldrick.

Lamontagne said, "Paul drove up to Colebrook and sat us down and said, 'Look, you don't just walk away from something like this. You have to keep plugging away at it.' He revived our whole economic development group up there. I'll never forget him for that."

Hennessey and Greg Eastman, a former LIDC president, thanked Art Tighe, of Foto Factory, who designed the plaque, and Wilco Direct for installing it.

The plaque is a way to educate those who don't know who McGoldrick was or what he did, said Hennessey.

Today, the Littleton Industrial Park is recognized as one of the most important economic centers in the state.

"He realized among many important aspects to a vibrant community were economic development and education," reads the plaque. "Paul also realized that a strong education training program is an important element of having a robust community."

In addition to McGoldrick's co-founding and leadership at LIDC, he was one of the founders of the Littleton Area Learning Center, which has been renamed in his honor.