Professional Profile: William Kelleher - 1983

Name: William Kelleher - 1983

Title: Partner

Company: Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates Inc.

Location: Worcester, MA

Birthplace: Worcester, MA

William Kelleher Jr. and Harold Sadowoky are partners of Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates Inc. in Worcester, Mass. The company was founded in October 1981 and the principals feel they have been a part of the growth and success of the downtown area. K.&S. now has a staff of 15 people, handling residential, commercial and industrial real estate sales, leasing and rehabilitation. It will cobroker and the owners feel they have a very good working relationship with other companies in the area. Bill and Harold say they have the “local touch,” being native of Worcester and both living in the state’s second largest city. “We probably know everyone active in the business community, socially or on a personal or business basis ,” Harold says. The company has been retained to market some of the significant properties in the county, including the Whitin Machine Works, the Davidson plant in Whitinsville and several historic buildings in downtown Worcester such as the Day building, a historic landmark. It is now leasing space for Jordan Marsh in Worcester Center and marketing and rehabbing the Chase building. “We have a simple policy manual,” Bill told us. “It only has one word in it: ‘Integrity.’ It’s really the basis of our management philosophy.” He and Harold point out that Worcester has become the growth center it is because within a 50 mile radius of the city there is a population of 6.5 million. “Worcester is in the path of progress with its diversified industrial base and its huge educational complex. We have nine colleges, two insurance company home offices, the investment downtown by Marriott Hotels and the Centrum,” Harold said. “Since the access and egress is so beautiful, you can go in and out of the city without the worry of finding a parking space or the congestion of traffic, and that is the key to success,” Bill says. Kelleher & Sadowsky intend to expand operations to all of central Mass. but are planning their growth very carefully, especially in residential real estate. They are also expanding their mortgage brokerage business. Bill graduated from the Boston College School of Management and spent his early years in the family’s retail business. He joined Bob & Lee Mathieu Realtors in Westborough and became their sales and marketing director. While still in school he shined shoes at the Pleasant Valley Country Club and met a variety of famous people, including Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason. Involved in the city’s affairs, Bill is affiliated with a wide range of organizations: as trustee of the Worcester Historic Museum, director of the American Red Cross Chapter, director of the Chamber of Commerce. K.&S. sponsors the baseball team of which his son is a member. “We feel we take from this community end it’s important to give back to it. It is a very important part of our public relations and our belief about what is the right thing to do,” he said. Bill and his wife live in the city with their 12 year old son and nine year old daughter. He enjoys work and fishing, is a licensed lobsterman and does his fishing in Buzzards Bay. Harold graduated from Worcester Academy and Harvard Uni. with a cum laude degree in Political Science. For a while he worked with his father in law’s office equipment business before moving to New York where he was a specialist on the Door of the American Stock Exchange. He returned to Worcester in 1978 and met Bill through his sister in law. Bill and Harold discussed the possibility of real estate, but Harold didn’t have his broker’s license. After be got it, he went to work for the Mathieus from 1979 to ‘81 until the pair teemed up and formed their own firm. Harold is a member of the Harvard Club of Worcester, the, Mt. Pleasant Country Club and the Jewish Community Center. He likes to play golf and tennis, travel and is a numismatist. “I have four children,” Harold told us: “’One is a practicing attorney in Kansas, one is in graduate school at Columbia Univ., another attends college in Conn. and the youngest is ready to succeed me.” “’The reason Bill and I work so well together is we are totally different types of people. I am more personally oriented, on a one to one basis, and Bill is more socially minded. Between the two of us we really cover the whole waterfront,” Harold says. And Bill Comments: “We have a simple rule of management that allows a partnership to function very well. U we don’t agree with something, we just don’t do it because of the entity. What we’ve built is more important than a minor difference of opinion.”