Hey, Neil Gillis: What's Your Story?

Neil Gillis: A Life of Work, Volunteerism, and Softball

Neil Gillis, a resident of CVE since July 2023, recalls his long, active life in the Boston, MA, area before moving to Florida. He grew up in East Somerville, north of Cambridge, and moved about a mile away to Charlestown, which is part of the city of Boston, in 1980. 

Just out of high school in the 70s, Neil, along with some cousins, began working for his uncle, a drywall contractor. His job included framing, hanging drywall, and spraying popcorn ceilings. Work was steady until a building slowdown in 1984. At that point, he decided to go out on his own and join a union, Carpenters Local #138 in Cambridge, which he describes as “the best move I ever made.”

For the next several years, he did drywall in an industry that was dominated by French Canadians. They were often subject to discrimination, but Neil befriended them. In 1991, union activist Mark Erlich took him into his confidence. He asserted, rightfully, that the union was corrupt and run by favoritism, and it needed a new approach. The current board had to go.

The French Canadians, most of whom lived in New Hampshire, had not been involved in union politics due to the discrimination. Neil got the idea to rent buses to bring them down to union headquarters so they could participate in voting. Their votes became the deciding ones in an election that sent the corrupt board packing, but only after the Federal government had to be called in.

At the time, Neil was a foreman for a drywall company. Erlich asked him to become a union steward. The experience expanded his world. He would become a trustee for more than a decade. Also, he got to work for Habitat for Humanity and build an outdoor stadium for theater in Cambridge. He helped construct a stage at Faneuil Hall when Bill Clinton came to campaign in Boston. Along with getting to know numerous members of other unions, he got to meet candidate Clinton.

Neil describes himself during those years as a “workaholic.” In the cold weather, in addition tohis regular day job, he often worked evenings, grabbing a plate of food at home before heading out again. During the summer, he’d play softball. He had married a woman with four kids, and then they had four more together, for a total of five girls and three boys. He got the kids involved in sports. As a hockey coach, he interested a son and daughter in playing hockey. Eventually, he combined his carpentry skills with his love of sports. His volunteer work in Charlestownincluded building a trophy case for the youth hockey league, stands at the hockey stadium, and dugouts for Little League, which he had painted “Fenway Park Green.”

Complications of prostate cancer caused Neil to retire, reluctantly, in 2017 as a 34-year member of Carpenters Local #328. He still had three years to go on a five-year project at Harvard University.

But retirement opened the door to realizing a dream: moving to Florida. He had friends whom hevisited in CVE. Before making a commitment, however, he became a snowbird in Vero Beach. Finally, two years ago he moved to Florida full-time. Back at his old home, his legacy is alive: Two of his sons-in-law joined the Carpenters Union, and one of his daughters, after 14 years in the army, recently started as a first-year apprentice.

Although it took Neil several years to become a resident of CVE, it was a kind of love at first sight. A friend he was visiting lived near the parking lot adjacent to the Clubhouse where men play stickball. “I’d been a big softball guy all my life.” He knew he could feel right at home here. After he moved to CVE, Neil discovered there was a softball league, and he now plays three times a week. In addition, he plays stickball twice a week.

Neil has had more than his share of sadness. A son who was a high-functioning first-year apprentice, was lost to a drug overdose. Another son, who’d been running the Charlestown sports programs, died from Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer that afflicts mainly children and young adults. And a daughter perished from bone cancer just this past month.

When asked how he deals with such losses and other difficult times, his answer is that he keeps himself busy. He does miscellaneous carpentry and handyman jobs, some gratis for neighbors. He has his softball and stickball. When he isn’t busy, he likes to chill at the beach or poolside.And for the past 16 years, he goes to AA meetings, which give him “mental relief.”

Are there other things he’d like to be doing? “Maybe travel more,” he says. “Not cruises but places of historical interest.” Work and play can be soothing, but sometimes travel does a person good.