Paul Kerry helped to create Saco’s version of Norm and Cliff’s favorite hangout.

“Him in the pub was just like ‘Cheers,’” Hanna Kerry said of her brother-in-law, who was one of four brothers and a cousin who established the Kerrymen Family Restaurant and Pub on Main Street in Saco 40 years ago.

“People would go there just to see Paul and his buddies, throwing the barbs back and forth,” she said. “People would go up there on a Sunday afternoon and just be entertained for the whole afternoon.”

Mr. Kerry, who died in his sleep Thursday at the age of 74, was a bus and delivery driver, then became a supervisor for the United Parcel Service in the 1960s.

When the family members decided to start the restaurant and pub in 1970, it fell to Paul, the oldest of the brothers, to run the place.

Hanna Kerry said the two brothers who were keenest on the idea of a family pub — her husband, Richard, and John Kerry — had young families and couldn’t take the chance of giving up careers to run the new place.

So the oldest got the responsibility.

A gifted storyteller who could find the humor in almost any situation, Mr. Kerry was a natural for the job.

“He was the Eddie Griffin of Saco,” said Richard Kerry, referring to the late, legendary bar owner whose Griffin Club was a gathering place in South Portland for generations.

Hanna Kerry said her brother-in-law was a hard worker, who made sure meals were prepared right and served quickly as he oversaw the restaurant operation.

“He was the ultimate manager,” Richard Kerry said.

After that work was done, he would head to the pub, greet old friends and swap stories and good-natured insults.

Many of the stories of Paul Kerry couldn’t be repeated outside of the bar, Hanna said.

Richard Kerry said that beneath the humor, the stories and the off-color jokes, his brother was a family man.

“His greatest gift was his love for his siblings and his mother,” he said.

After a sister, Mary Kerry Libby, died of cancer, he led a family effort to raise money for cancer research through the annual Mary’s Walk.

Hanna Kerry said that, in a sense, Paul Kerry will always be at the bar in the family pub.

“He’s not here physically, but he will live on in wonderful stories,” she said.

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com

 

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