WCRIBMA President Paul Meagher Dies at 64 of Heart Attack

Friday, July 8, 2016 | 0

The president of the Workers' Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau of Massachusetts died unexpectedly this weekend, the Boston-based bureau announced.

Paul Meagher, 64, of Sudbury, died of a heart attack Saturday while vacationing with his family in Maine.

Meagher worked at the WCRIBMA for 26 years, starting in 1990 as a general counsel and working his way up to president in 2000.

Before joining the bureau, he worked for the late State Sen. Robert D. Wetmore and served as senior counsel at Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

He was one of the first gubernatorial appointees to the Workers' Compensation Advisory Council, the WCRIBMA said.

In person, he was genuine and compassionate — a great listener who made everyone he spoke with feel special, said colleague Bruce Cochrane.

"The most important person to him was the person he was speaking to at that point," said Cochrane, the chairman of WCRIBMA's governing committee.

That quality earned him respect from friends and colleagues, and it also made him an asset to the bureau, Cochrane said.

"Workers' compensation is a people business, and he had people skills," Cochrane said. "You've got antagonistic forces at play within the system, and yet Paul was able to bridge all of those islands, so to speak, and help people find common ground."

"Paul was very collaborative — good at getting parties with opposing viewpoints to come to a meeting of the minds," said Robert McCarthy, WCRIBMA's senior vice president and chief actuary. "He was very easygoing and very much a family guy, a people guy."

Meagher leaves behind his wife, Adeline, and two children, Madeline and Michelle, as well as his father, two siblings, and many nieces and nephews, according to his obituary.

"I always respected his devotion to his family. He was a wonderful father and husband," said Meagher's former colleague Ellen Keefe, who retired from her position as vice president and general counsel of WCRIBMA this year. "He did a lot of activities with his family. They went hiking, they went to Martha's Vineyard. He loved watching his daughters play soccer."

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Meagher lived in Sudbury for the past 23 years and spent time living in Waltham as well.

Visiting hours will be held today from 3-8 p.m. at the MetroWest Funeral & Cremation Service of Wadsworth-Chiappini, 318 Union Ave., Framingham.

The funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at MetroWest.

WCRIBMA will form a search committee to find a permanent successor to Meagher, and in the meantime, interim leadership will take effect "soon," Cochrane said.