James M. \u201cJim\u201d Flaherty, Sr. 78, passed away September 3rd, 2020, at home after an extended illness surrounded by his loving family and close friends.<\/p>\n
Born in Haverhill, he was the son of the late Maurice C. and Pearl E. (Horne) Flaherty. Raised and educated in Haverhill, he attended Sacred Hearts School and graduated in the Class of 1960 from Haverhill Trade School. Upon graduation from high school, Jim enlisted in the United States Navy and was stationed on the Proteus in Dunoon Scotland, earning 3rd Class Petty Officer\u2019s rank. During his time there, Jim met and began to fall in love with a young woman named Jean Coggins. One day when she shared that before their meeting she had applied to come to work in the United States and that she just received her date and location to leave; Jim thought that meant the end of their relationship. However, when she asked him if he knew where Andover, Massachusetts was, he knew he found his life partner and soul mate.<\/p>\n
After leaving the Navy, Jim began his forty-seven-year career working for the City of Haverhill Public Works and proudly working his way through the ranks from laborer to Superintendent of the Highway Department. He loved taking care of his city nearly as much as his family. His excitement blossomed at the hint of a major snowstorm, and his children reveled in being the first kids in the city to know that school was canceled. He regularly created projects to beautify or create a special occasion for the residents. The one that made his heart overflow was when he and his department worked to create Santa\u2019s Workshop on the Bradford Green Park and watched it grow over several years. Jim loved the holidays but especially enjoyed that this project collected toys to be distributed to children that may not otherwise experience gifts and a joyful Christmas. In addition to the formal holidays, Jim just loved any opportunity to bring his family and friends together to celebrate and have fun. Jim loved people and had a wide circle of friends; he enjoyed traveling with, navigating a boat ride up the Merrimack on a warm summer day, dining out, or watching a youth sports game, especially hockey. Additionally, he relished a great day of fishing, a good round of golf, or a weekend away with family and friends in their treasured condo at Linderhoff Mountain.<\/p>\n
Jim is survived by his loving wife of fifty-six years, Jean M. Flaherty, his daughter, Dr. Dorothy A. Flaherty, his sons James M. Flaherty, Jr, and his wife Linda; John C. Flaherty and his wife Stacey; and Kevin P. Flaherty, all from Haverhill. His beloved grandchildren, Christina and her husband Michael, James M. Flaherty III, Gavin M. Flaherty, Hayden C. Flaherty, and Morgan R. Flaherty; he was so excited to gain a new great-grandaughter, Alina, upon the marriage of his dearest Christina to Michael Hurtado. His sister, Elizabeth Bradley, and her husband Richard of Bradford; He was predeceased by his brother, Maurice C. Flaherty, Jr; as well as his treasured sister and brother-in-law Mary and Robert Greenwood, and several nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n
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Family and friends are respectfully invited to attend calling hours on Monday, September 7 from 4:00PM until 7:00PM at the Kevin B. Comeau Funeral Home, 486 Main Street, Haverhill. Funeral services will begin on Tuesday morning at the funeral home at 9:00AM with a Mass of Christian Burial to be celebrated at Sacred Heart Church, 165 South Main Street, Haverhill. Burial will follow in Elmwood Cemetery, Salem Street, Bradford. In lieu of flowers please make a donation to: St. Jude\u2019s Childrens’ Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN 38105. Please visit Comeau Funeral Home on Facebook or www.comeaufuneral.com<\/p>\n
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James M. \u201cJim\u201d Flaherty, Sr. 78, passed away September 3rd, 2020, at home after an extended illness surrounded by his loving family and close friends. Born in Haverhill, he was the son of the late Maurice C. and Pearl E. (Horne) Flaherty. Raised and educated in Haverhill, he attended Sacred Hearts School and graduated in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ma","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comeaufuneral.com\/2025-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}