Businessman, mayor, volunteer: Dan Bogan remembered for contributions to Fall River

FALL RIVER — Dan Bogan put his stamp on Fall River. And vice versa.

A man who loved to see those from the Spindle City succeed, and himself a leading city businessman and politician, Bogan died at home late Saturday night. He was 89.

What is Bogan being best remembered for? Take your pick.

A B.M.C. Durfee High School graduate and a member of its athletics hall of fame, Bogan was owner/CEO of Borden & Remington Corporation, the now almost two-centuries-old business on the waterfront. He was a member of the City Council, the council’s president, mayor for a half year, a member of the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees.

“He had great faith in people,” said Bob Bogan, who succeeded his father as president of Borden & Remington. “He rooted for people to do well. He was happy when other people did well. He loved local success stories especially. He was very parochial that way.”

To those very closest to him, the best memories of Dan Bogan are of husband, dad, uncle, friend and grandfather. He was a regular at his grandchildren’s athletics events, including grandson Brian's two appearances at the TD Garden as a member of the Bishop Connolly High School basketball team.

“He’d always tell the grandchildren, ‘Saw ya in the paper,’” recalled daughter Sharon (Bogan) Quinn, vice-president at Borden & Remington (BOREMCO).

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At American Legion baseball games at Chew Park, lucky was the spectator (or reporter) who sat next to Dan Bogan. The game might be boring, but the Fall River history lessons (business, sports, politics), courtesy of Professor Bogan, never were.

How he got his start at BOREMCO

Daniel Bogan, his son recalled, became co-owner of BOREMCO, a chemical distributor and manufacturer, in an unconventional manner, though conventional by Neil Tillotson standards.

Post-military and after a stint working at the Fall River Gas Co., Bogan was employed as a salesman for Firestone, on the waterfront. He was actually sizing up a transfer to a Firestone job in Marlborough when Tillotson, owner of BOREMCO and multiple other businesses (latex, real estate [Commercial Wharf in Boston], sailboat companies), was impressed enough by the 1951 Durfee High graduate to offer him half ownership, straight up, 50-50. Didn’t cost Bogan a penny.

As bizarre as this sounds, Bob Bogan said it was modus operandi for Tillotson, a New Hampshire resident. It wasn’t philanthropic, rather a successful business development strategy. Tillotson, Bob Bogan recalled, would say he liked to go into business with the son of a poor man rather than the son of a rich man.

Bob Bogan said that once his father agreed to the offer, Tillotson told him, “You can go by any title you want, but I’m the treasurer.”

With Bogan putting his sales skills, his Fall River grit, and his vision to good use, the 50-50 partnership was a success: BOREMCO flourished, with its distribution and manufacturing.

“My father was a tremendous salesman. He had nerves of steel,” Bob Bogan said. “He would take risks. He was constantly going forward. He never looked back. If you make mistakes, learn from them, but keep going.”

Famously thrifty — at Earnshaw’s diner in Fall River, he once ordered a cup of hot water and then pulled a tea bag from his pocket — Tillotson lived to age 102, dying in 2001. The Bogans subsequently bought the entire Tillotson Complex (now known as the Ironworks) on the waterfront in 2005, but not without a prolonged legal battle with the Tillotson Corporation. Tillotson, Bob Bogan noted, actually sold to the Bogans Neil Tillotson’s 50 percent ownership of BOREMCO for $1 and one of its lawyers predicted the Bogans would be out of business in six months. That just fueled the fire of the then-72-year-old Dan Bogan.

The Bogans, Bob recalled, had sunk every business penny into the business, took out a bank loan, and went full speed ahead. When he bought the complex, Dan Bogan gathered his approximately 50 employees at White’s of Westport to let them know the company was, in a sense, starting from scratch. He said he understood if anyone wanted to leave. None did. Many of them are still with BOREMCO.

The Bogans embraced their new-start challenge. “We had the ball for the last shot,” Bob Bogan said. “That’s all you can ever hope for.”

Having the entire Ironworks Complex under the family umbrella was extra satisfying for Dan, a proud Irish-American (a shamrock was drawn at the bottom of the Bogan pool). A century earlier, many of the businesses in the complex had flown the NINA (No Irish Need Apply) signs.

Dan Bogan's political career

Dan Bogan served on the Fall River City Council for 22 years and was its president for 14. There he had what was regarded as a solid working relationship with long-serving Mayor Carlton Viveiros. “They worked well together,” said Fall River attorney John Mitchell, who served on City Council with Bogan and succeeded him as mayor.

Unlike some businessmen who come into politics, Mitchell said, Bogan brought with him the proper fiscal mentality, one that showed he understood that a city was not out to make a profit, but at the same time money had to be allocated and spent wisely. “He was a very good guy to work with,” Mitchell said. “He wasn’t petty at all. He was, 'can we get this done?'”

Edward Lambert, who succeeded Mitchell as mayor and served 12 terms, was a young school committeeman, in his 20s, when Bogan was president of the City Council.

“I think he was a quintessential diplomat in an interesting era in politics,” Lambert said. “He gave himself to civic volunteerism. He was someone I looked up to early in my political career.”

Lambert said he had great respect for the way council president Bogan ran the meetings, making sure the business of the council was kept at the forefront. “He ruled that chamber in a quiet way. He was a real gentleman…. He would ensure civil debate.

“But he also had that booming voice that commanded respect.”

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Brief tenure as mayor

Bogan ascended to mayor when Viveiros resigned to accept the position of clerk magistrate of the Southeastern Housing Court. His mayoral tenure ran from Dec. 22, 1990, to June 25, 1991. He chose not to run in the subsequent mayor election.

Bob Bogan said his father would say that he knew the Fall River charter as well as anyone, and how that charter provided for a mayor with extensive power. Despite that foreknowledge, Bob Bogan said, his father did not realize how enormous that job is until he walked in the mayoral shoes. “He had tremendous respect for that position,” Bob Bogan said.

In a professional and personal challenge that started when he was mayor and lasted eight years, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bogan’s favor in a suit filed by former city employee Janet Scott-Harris after the Department of Health and Human Services, of which she was the administrator and lone employee, was eliminated from the city budget in the cost-cutting 1992 fiscal budget. Then council vice-president Marilyn Roderick, along with Bogan, was a petitioner in the civil case.

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Known for service to the community

Dan Bogan was, his son emphasized, a strong advocate of volunteerism, especially at the local level. Read his obituary to see how many boards and committees he volunteered his valuable time to.

At Durfee High School, he competed in football and track and field. Then football coach Luke Urban made a monumental impact on Bogan. “Luke Urban saved him,” Bob Bogan said. “He had no father figure growing up. He revered (Urban).”

At Durfee he was a classmate of and close friend of Tom Gastall, arguably the best all-around athlete in school history. As a member of the Baltimore Orioles, Gastall died when the plane he was piloting crashed into Chesapeake Bay. Dan Bogan was one of Gastall’s pall bearers, Bob Bogan said.

A proud U.S. Army Korean War veteran and graduate of Southeastern Massachusetts Dartmouth, Bogan served as a UMass Dartmouth Trustee/UMass (statewide) Trustee for a combined 15 years. “That blew his mind,” Bob Bogan said. “He attended college on the G.I. Bill.”

Fall River businessman Bob Karam was a fellow UMD and UMass trustee with Bogan. He cherished their rides to the trustee meetings around the state. Karam got to see his friend, at home last week, just before his death. Karam said it was the first time he’s cried since his own parents’ passings.

Like Mitchell, Karam remembered how Bogan and Mayor Viveiros worked together, in contrast to the caustic council-mayor relationships the city had known. “Those guys worked hand in hand. They got together and decided to do the business of the people,” Karam said.

Their UMD/ UMass trustee days were, Karam said, a joy and productive. Karam, with Bogan at his side, chaired the UMass Trustees for four years. “Every time I had a tough decision to make, I’d ask Dan if he would chair the committee,” Karam said. “People liked him and he did the work. He chaired the tough committees.”

As trustee chairman, Karam said he would get more publicity, more attention, more credit than Bogan Lack of recognition, he added, never bothered Bogan, regardless of the forum — politics or business or just helping with a worthy cause.

“He was modest, unassuming,” Karam said. “He just did the things that needed to be done. A great guy. A very, very special guy.”

Though one who could give the needle. Just ask his son.

“People always asked me what it was like working for my father. I’d tell them it makes me feel young,” Bob Bogan said with a laugh, “because I got treated like I was 12 every day.”

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: BOREMCO owner Dan Bogan has died; was briefly mayor of Fall River