Lynn Club Honors T. Richard Cuffe
An overflow crowd of Lynn Rotarians, family members, friends and colleagues of local attorney T. Richard Cuffe attended Thursday’s meeting at the Porthole Restaurant to recognizes the many contributions Cuffe has made to the Lynn community.Cuffe, a longtime Rotarian, recently made the difficult decision to resign from the Lynn club while he deals with some medical challenges. "Rich Cuffe epitomizes Rotary’s motto, ‘Service above self;" stated fellow Rotarian Joyce Elliott who organized the tribute to Cuffe. "When I joined the Lynn Club many years ago, Rich was the first one to welcome me and always went out of his way to make every new member feel welcomed.” Assistant District Governor Joan Arsenault, the keynote speaker for the event, noted how Cuffe had a reputation of not being able to say no when asked to help a person in need. During his many years in the Lynn club, Cuffe served as the point person for the Lynn Special Games, which was a day of fun activities for all Lynn Public School students being serviced in “special needs” classrooms. The Lynn Club was the primary sponsor for the Special Games. Cuffe chaired the Scholarship Committee and was responsible for collating and distributing of all the scholarship materials to be disseminated to committee members. He regularly volunteered to serve meals at the local soup kitchen, My Brother’s Table. He was the President of Camp Rotary Inc., where he advocated for scholarships for needed Lynn students whose parents could not afford to send their sons or daughters to an overnight camp for a week. As a former US Army officer and Viet Nam veteran, Cuffe made it part of his mission to keep the Rotary Club of Lynn active with veteran organization activities in the city.
Club President Ray Bastarache noted that Cuffe’s presence at meetings, warm smile and unwavering commitment to serve mankind would surely be missed.