The Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester will mark its 50th anniversary this year. The organization’s first clubhouse swung open its doors on Deer Street in July 1974, but the effort had begun four years earlier with a core group of volunteers led by the sons of the club’s original namesake, Colonel Daniel F. Marr, the patriarch of a longtime Dorchester family who died in 1969. The concept was to memorialize the colonel by filling what the Marr family saw as a glaring hole in their home neighborhood— a youth facility that could serve the community they loved.

Of the core group who gathered in 1970 to organize the effort, only one is still alive: Joseph Brodigan, Sr., an attorney who helped to incorporate the non-profit that eventually became the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester. Brodigan, 81, is a Lower Mills native who still practices law and tries cases in Boston with his family-run firm – Brodigan & Gardiner. Three of his children are part of the firm and Joe Sr. remains the chief counsel to the BGCD today and is deeply engaged in the effort to build a fourth club facility, the $70 million FieldHouse+ on Columbia Point.

The Reporter sat down with Brodigan this month to talk about his connection to this Dorchester institution that he has devoted his time to protecting, building, and fostering.

Q. Where did you get your start?
A. I grew up on Clearwater Drive, Lower Mills, St. Gregory’s Parish in Dorchester with my brother Mike and my sisters Kathy and Maureen and we all went to St. Gregory’s Grammar School. The girls went to St. Gregory’s High School, so, we are straight St. Gregory’s, through and through, which always calls you back, as you know. I went to Boston College High School, also in Dorchester. Then I went to Fairfield University and Boston University Law School. But I was educated in the primary schools and in the Catholic schools in Dorchester, so I have a big connection to Dorchester.

I loved it as a kid growing up. Gone today, but not forgotten. We had the Martin Street Woods, which bordered Clearwater Drive and Martin Street, and ran all the way up almost to the project, you know? It was about four or five acres of woods. We had great times there. We thought we were mountain climbing in the Alps, But, we had almost as much fun, probably more fun than the people who really do mountain climbing in the Alps. I still have friends, some of my dearest friends, the guys I grew up with in Dorchester… We all still see each other, and we all still enjoy each other’s company.

Q. What did you do after law school?
A. I did work in the Dorchester Court as a summer project, which was very, very enjoyable. It was like a sleepy little country court. Everybody knew each other. The people that worked there, it just couldn’t have got better people. They were concerned about everybody. They weren’t out to hurt anybody. They were there to help. It was a community type court. I mean, they had some rough customers and, and, you know, occasionally some horrific crimes, but by and large, it was very enjoyable to work there. I wanted to try cases. After I graduated from law school, I was teaching, waiting for the bar results at the Patrick Campbell School, also in Dorchester. But after that I was employed by the largest trial firm in the city firm called Badger Parish…. It would not be unusual for me to try four [civil] cases a week. I left there and went to a firm called Langan Dempsey and stayed there. That firm ultimately became Brodigan & Gardiner, where I now practice, and we still do a lot of trial work and do a lot of work in the construction industry. We represent a lot of different types of businesses… I don’t try four cases a week anymore. But I still, at 81, try cases.

Q. How did you connect with the Marr family and the Boys & Girls Club effort?
A. I originally connected with the family because their business was in South Boston and Dorchester. And my father was also in business in Dorchester, in Everett Edward Square, Broer Motors. He had a Cadillac dealership there for years… I was the only kid in Dorchester driven to school every day in a brand, new Cadillac [laughs]. … I knew the Marr family a bit, especially in Scituate, where we went in the summer, and so did the Marrs. I remember their grandfather, Colonel Daniel Marr. When I landed in the firm of Langan and Dempsey, they were representing the Marrs. It was kind of a natural connection. They knew who I was, I knew who they were, and I began to represent them.

Q. What do you remember about Colonel Marr?
A. He was a big, burly man, but a very, very nice, guy…. He was very active in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and I would guess from that he attained his rank in the home guard. His son Bob was a general in the home guard. He had a higher rank, pretty impressive. And those were governor appointments.

Q. Do you recall how the germ of this idea to start a club started?
A. The Marr family were Savin Hill people, on the St. William side of the bridge. And the father had the business in South Boston. So, they were very attuned to the neighborhood there. And the oldest son, Jackie, was killed in the Korean War. It was a very sad thing. But they all grew up in the neighborhood and they were always very generous, always concerned about helping the disadvantaged, kids that didn’t have quite what they thought they had. But not only kids that didn’t have it; they were concerned that kids should get what they needed to grow. And there was no facility for that.

Dorchester was a terrific neighborhood because of the people. The people just cared about each other. You know, they watched out for each other, but there weren’t a lot of facilities. Compared to today, when you see the kids wearing the same kind of jackets, emblemizing any program they happen to be in or anything of that nature for the city, we didn’t have that. Bob Marr and Dan Marr Jr. – I think they recognized that lack of services to the kids. They wanted to do something. They wanted to provide some of those services for the kids.

Q. You were in the room where it happened, so to speak. How did they go about it?
A. They had the idea first, then searched for the site, and subsequently found the site on Deer Street. The original club was set up in 1970. When I say set up, I mean, incorporated. And I have the names of those incorporators. One was Bob Marr, one was Dan Marr Jr. The colonel was gone by then. There was a gentleman named Mark Burke, who was friendly with the Marr family. James Langan, the judge whom I worked with in the early part of my career. Interestingly enough, Joseph Feeney was one of the founders. He had been the secretary to Speaker of the House John McCormack. Then he was a judge in the South Boston District Court, and then the Boston Municipal Court. And there was Ed Conley, a member of the Marr family. They found a site because that was the neighborhood they grew up in. They were sophisticated contractors. The Marr companies do a rather a large variety of construction services. I’m their attorney, too, and have been for 50 years. They had all kinds of talents in the construction industry and they used those talents to create what’s out there now, you know?

Q. You were there when the Deer Street building opened in 1974. What do you remember about that day?
A. I’m trying to remember the politicians who were there and I’m having a hard time. I think the mayor was there, Kevin White. He was a proponent of it. There was a good crowd of neighbors there. All the original founders, of course, were there. It was a lot of noise, a lot of speeches. The pool was a big decision, because pools are problems. Going back 50 years now, there weren’t many, if any, pools in Dorchester. It was a big, big amenity… So that was something that they wanted to do right from the beginning: make sure that those kids had access to a swimming pool.

Q. What do you recall about those first weeks and months when the doors were open and there was a place to go?
A. It grew pretty fast. The gym and the pool were used all the time. Then you had the addition of some of the services… But it was the physical use of the gym and the pool that I remember originally as attracting everybody. And the way that they handled people. In all the years that I’ve been there, I don’t remember any serious incidents of a violent nature.

Q. One of the big moments in the club’s history happened in 1988 with the arrival of Bob Scannell, now the CEO and president, to take a leadership role. Can you talk about that?
A. That is definitely true. There were various other directors, and they were good. But Bob Scannell has been a superstar in doing what he’s done here. He is absolutely belt and suspenders dedicated to the success of the Boys and Girls Club. All the long-time board members also have that same attitude. Jerry Morrisey, Dan Marr, Jeff Marr, they go to every meeting.

Q. One of the most impressive things has been that continuity of leadership, yourself included. The club has a staff of core leadership that’s been there for decades Bob Scannell, Mary Kinsella, Queenie Santos, Mike Joyce. Any thoughts on that?
A. Mike Joyce is a Dorchester guy, and he has brought that great Dorchester attitude over into the club. Everybody remembers Mike Joyce, kids that were there, you know, 30 years ago, 40 years ago. One of the first words out of their mouths will be Mike Joyce. You can quote me on this one: Mike Joyce is going to Heaven.

Q. You’ve invested a lot of your time personally in this club. Why?
A. Dorchester gave me a lot. This was a small way for me to give something back… It is absolutely about the kids. If you go to a board of directors meeting, there’s always a kid there. There’s always one of the members there saying a couple of words. You go to a function, they’re always there…All the kids today are the same as they were 50 years ago. Good kids. They just need a place to be, a little service, someplace good to go.

Q. Looking back from your vantage point, how do you regard this institution and its growth over 50 years?
A. I see it as an expanding progression right from the beginning to where it is today. And I see that progression in turn continuing. It started with a good idea, and a good, caring set of people have nurtured it since. … I don’t see any right turns or left turns. It’s been straight ahead and growing all the time.

Q. This latest project, the $70 million FieldHouse, is obviously the biggest capital effort that the club has undertaken. What’s your expectation for how this will come together over the next year or two?
A. You know that expansion I was talking about? I see the beginning of that explosion right now. I think that contribution from Hale [the businessman/philanthropist Rob Hale and his wife Karen have donated $10 million to the Fieldhouse project by way of $1 million at the outset and an additional $9 million earlier this month] and what’s going to come from other longtime families and people associated with this is the beginning of this program coming to fruition.

It’s going to happen. It’s destined to happen. It is going to be a great contribution to Dorchester, and to the city as a whole. This [facility] will not only honor Martin Richard, but it will be getting the present administration of probably the best-run boys and girls club in the country. That’s coming with the building. How do you beat that? Boy, what a start!”