Name: Pat McGonigle

Age: 46

Currently lives in: Kansas City

How he got here: Lived in Mattapoisett from 1971-94

Favorite Tri-Town place: Crescent Beach and Oxford Creamery

What he’d change if he were the President of Tri-Town: “When I was a kid, really little, the parking lot that has the funeral home and police station, there used to be a circus there. I’d bring the circus back to Mattapoisett.”

Ever seen a celeb locally? “Sam Waterston … Well, I never actually saw him, but I loved hearing the accounts of people who did. It’s almost like he’s this mythical figure.”

By Jonathan Comey

            Pat McGonigle is going places. Literally.

He’s driving from St. Louis to Kansas City, ready to start his new job as the night news anchor for WDAF TV, but he’s more interested in talking about his hometown.

“I only really get a chance to come home about a week a year, and it’s almost painful, to be honest,” said McGonigle during a phone interview last weekend. He grew up with his four siblings in Mattapoisett, the son of Dr. John McGonigle, a dermatologist that everyone in town knew. “I come back with my family now, and you realize how spoiled we were growing up as kids. We were in a rowboat, rowing around the harbor, and my sixteen-year-old was like, ‘This must have been an amazing place to grow up.’”

McGonigle’s dad was known in town for his little practice in the village near Center School. He was a popular figure for his wonderful bedside manner, but not for his driving skills, so it was inevitable every couple of years or so that the family vehicle would wind up getting pulled over by the Mattapoisett police.

“Every time he’d get pulled over, they’d come up to the window,” he said, “and it’d be ‘Oh, Dr. McGonigle! You’re all set, have a good day.’ We used to joke, where do we get the Dr. McGonigle license?”

Dr. McGonigle passed away in 2010, and mother Margaret died last summer, but Pat says he will never lose touch with his local roots, which have been transplanted many times as he’s pursued a long, winding career as a TV news personality.

He got his start on the public access airwaves of “Bay 8,” hosting a sports trivia call-in show while still in high school.

“I so vividly recall the feeling of going on Bay 8, being on live TV, taking phone calls,” he said. “It was a rush! I’d be lying if I said I knew then, ‘Oh, this is what I want to do.’ But it was definitely my first taste of it.”

After graduating from the University of St. Louis, he decided to pursue a career as a broadcaster, which took him all over America – from Maine, to Omaha, to Grand Rapids, to Rochester, New York. Then onto a breakthrough job in St. Louis as a popular morning anchor, and now to his new challenge as the night news lead in Kansas City.

With his wife, changing cities comes with the headaches you’d expect, especially with juggling the responsibility of five daughters (and dog Harvey).

But it’s the adjustment on air to a new market that might be most challenging.

“Everyone hates the new guy,” says McGonigle, whose affable manner would seem to render him pretty much unhateable. “It’s just a fact. No one likes the new guy. ‘Hey, who’s this guy? I miss the old guy.’”

“My theory is just keep your head down, don’t do anything flashy, just work hard,” he says. “I think I’d describe myself as hard-working and willing to make myself the punch line. That’s something that’s a real easy trick. If you make yourself the punch line, let people know you’re not above it all, people like that, it endears you to people.”

McGonigle feels like he’s got a pretty sweet gig – he’s famous, “but not famous where people want to spend the day with you or stalk you,” and likes being able to interact with people both on TV and in the field.

“When I was young, I met (Boston TV legend) Bob Neumeier, and he made sure I had a cool experience. He talked to me just like a regular person, and I never forgot that. It’s a little gift you can give.”

He’s looking forward to making new connections in Kansas City, and says while his girls were upset when they learned they’d be moving (again), they are excited about the chance to reinvent themselves and make new friends.

But they’ve all expressed some envy of their dad’s idyllic upbringing.

“We were watching Stand By Me, and the girls were like, ‘Is this what life was like for you when you were little?’ And you know, that’s the 1950s! But they picture Mattapoisett as this perfect fantasyland.”

“I guess in a way, it was.”

If you were at Harbor Days at Shipyard Park this weekend, you probably noticed something – there were a lot of people there. Probably more than ever, according to outgoing president of the Mattapoisett Lions Club Kim Ray.

“It was fantastic,” said Ray. “I mean, the crowd! It seemed like we had record crowds.”

With the fantastic weather and the quality of vendors this year, it is no wonder that so many turned out for the annual Mattapoisett seaside event.

The Lions and some vendors even ran out of certain items that they never ran out of before, said Ray, and the event was able to raise a lot of money for the Lions Club.

“Harbor Days is our biggest fundraiser of the year,” Ray said, which provides funding to local residents in need and also funds two scholarships for two local high school students each year.

During Sunday morning’s pancake breakfast, “The lines were snaked across the park,” said Ray. “We actually sold over 600 pancake breakfasts, which was a huge amount. It was just incredible! We couldn’t believe it.”

Volunteers from other area Lions Clubs helped out, including the president of the Fairhaven Lions Bill Moniz, and his wife Diane, who sold tickets at the festival.

“We had a lot of support,” said Ray. “And we had a lot of help with serving those breakfasts. A lot of guys on the grill.”

Harbor Days. It’s a year-long, many-months-of-work project, and this year it was led by Ray, who days ago passed the torch onto the new president, Amy Mello, who will oversee next year’s Harbor Days and all the planning leading it up it.

“It was a huge undertaking, but it’s always a great event,” said Ray.

Ray had words of kindness and thanks for the Mattapoisett Council on Aging for providing the shuttle service between the bowling alley parking lot and Shipyard Park, as well as for the police and fire.

Ray also extended a word of gratitude to Lindsey Merolla and Elise Parker, two ORR students who spent the weekend at Shipyard Park doing henna painting.

“They donated all their proceeds to the Lions Club because they wanted to help support a local organization,” said Ray. “They had lines all the time, so that was a great new little event.”

With local pageant winners, entertainment by the Showstoppers, rows and rows of vendors peddling arts and crafts, and all the food, “We had a lot going on at that park,” said Ray.

The Wanderer congratulates the Mattapoisett Lions Club for a successful Harbor Days and wishes Amy Mello all the best as she prepares for next year’s event!

By Jean Perry