James J. McCann Charitable Trust |
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The name McCann is familiar to anyone who has played a round or two on the McCann Memorial Golf Course, skated at the McCann Ice Arena or attended a basketball game at the James J. McCann Recreation Center at the Marist College. Yet, during his lifetime, James McCann was not a local celebrity. He was not a politician, a patron of the arts, a noted scholar or a sports hero. He was a very private person whose generosity has touched thousands of lives.
A lifelong resident of Poughkeepsie, James lived very modestly as the proprietor of the McCann Feed and Grain Store, an old fashioned storefront on Main Street. His Success as an investor in the stock market, not his feed and grain business is responsible for the sizeable estate which established the McCann foundation. James J. McCann was one of five children bore to John and Catherine Kilcawley McCann. There were three sons, John Charles, and James, and two daughters, Mary and Agnes. The Entire family lived over their store until 1896 when they purchased a large home at the corner of North Hamilton and Mill streets. The Family business came into James' care when his brothers choose other careers. John went into the local coal business and Charles became a lawyer, joining Charles Corbally, John Hackett and Henry Hackett in the Hackett and Williams law firm. Mary and Agnes traveled extensively. Later, John decided to leave the area and sold the coal business to his father. On James' twenty-first birthday, his father presented him with some stock certificates, sparking what would become a life long passion for investing. In the rear of the store James maintained and office equipped with two private telephone lines. One was connected with his brokerage house on wall street; the other enabled him to check quotations with brokers in various parts of the country. James J. McCann died on February 23, 1969 at the age of eighty-nine. His estate grossed close to twenty million dollars and netted more then sixteen million. Today it is still growing as a result of the investments made by the foundation trustees. Each year, according to the guidelines established by the foundation, grants are made for the improvement of the community and its citizens. James McCann was a modest man who was devoted to his hometown and acted on his desire to give something back to his community |
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