Written by Mark Buell
Presented to Mary Murtagh by Doug Ferguson

What childhood prepares you for a lifetime of carousing
While simultaneously building lots of affordable housing?

We would say in truth, and it’s more than a rumor,
What’s needed is brains with a grand sense of humor!

A Wellesley degree would be a good start
And an MIT Masters would play a big part!

But to deal with developers one must be able
To negotiate while drinking them under the table!

To get some perspective, work for the Feds
(But don’t stay too long, or you’ll end up on meds!)

Do some Redevelopment in a place like L.A.
Then follow your boyfriend up here by the Bay

And how to distinguish yourself from the mob?
There’s nothing so rewarding as a non-profit job!

But rewarding for who? That won’t pay the bills
You’d be better off just making whiskey in stills!

That’s how it all started some thirty years back
When EAH pull Mary’s resume from a towering stack!

With beauty and brains, humor and spunk
Mary took that job. And who woulda thunk

that thousand of folks now have roofs o’er their heads
In homes with a hearth and warm comfy beds!

So we send you big kisses and “Thank You’s” en masse
For all of your Talent, Beauty and Class!