A pint of Guinness sat on the bar in front of a stool bearing the sign “Reserved in Honor of Kevin Boylan” Friday night at Murphy’s Pub in Swoyersville.
Boylan, a former Kingston resident who had owned and operated the pub as Boylan’s Bar for over a decade before opening restaurants in Dallas and then Kingston, died Friday in Florida, where he moved with his wife, Janet, after retiring in 2014. He was 74.
To say he had a lot of dear friends and former patrons who still frequent the pub and fondly remember him would be an understatement.
“Oh, my God, yeah. Everybody remembers him in some capacity, for sure. He just had one of those personalities,” said Eric Murphy, who co-owns the pub with his wife, Jennifer.
“He had such a big personality, always the star of the show. He always had a good story and was big on making toasts,” said Murphy, who first met Boylan at the Wyoming Valley Country Club in 2002,when Murphy worked there as executive chef and Boylan was a member.
A pint of Guinness and reserved sign at Murphy’s Pub in Swoyersville honor the late Kevin Boylan, who died Friday.
Boylan had a long history in both the bar-and-restaurant and banking industries in the Wyoming Valley.
Boylan was part of a group that opened the Locker Room on Market Street in Kingston on Dec. 1, 1982. He helped operate it for almost four years and, although it was successful, he and his partners sold it because they all were working at other jobs at the time and couldn’t do both, he said in a 2014 interview.
Boylan worked for United Penn Bank and Wyoming National Bank in Wilkes-Barre for a total of 20 years.
He operated Boylan’s Bar from 1994 to 2006.
He opened his restaurant Thirty-One Lake Street in Dallas in 2008 and closed it a couple years later when he had a chance to open a restaurant twice its size.
Boylan had his eye on the former Gelpiaz’s restaurant at 247 Wyoming Ave., which closed in early 2007, having admired its industrial, warehouse-like atmosphere. Opening a restaurant in Kingston was like “a homecoming” for him, he had said.
Kevin Boylan at Kevin’s Bar and Restaurant on Wyoming Avenue in Kingston. (FILE)
Boylan, who was born on March 17 — St. Patrick’s Day — in 1961, is fondly remembered for his endearing personality, sense of humor, pride in his Irish heritage and love for his family.
Tom Leary, former president of Luzerne County Community College, had known Boylan since they were teenagers.
He attended Wyoming Valley West and I went to Central Catholic, but it was a very tight community, so everybody got to know one another,” Leary said.
“He was just an incredible person who, when he walked into a room, he was bigger than life. Everyone who met him, just about everyone I know, just had an instant connection with him,” Leary said.
“He had a great sense of humor. He had a real great insight into people, which, over the years, not only socially, but in terms of business, people connected with him. His places, I would say, were analogous to (the fictional Boston pub) Cheers, where when you walked in, you didn’t feel like you were in a business place, you felt like you were literally with family and friends. He created that atmosphere,” Leary said.
The traits Leary will remember most about Boylan are his sense of humor, always smiling and always having an encouraging word.
Asked for a memorable story, Leary recalled their trips to Notre Dame football games with some other friends and, on one particular trip, visiting the home of Kevin White, the university’s athletic director.
Toastmaster Kevin Boylan, left, and keynote speaker, former Cincinnati Bengals player Bruce Kozerski, chat during the Greater Wilkes-Barre Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner at the Ramada in Wilkes-Barre on March 16, 2013. (FILE)
“I remember what a great time that was, meeting the football coaches, basketball coaches from Notre Dame, and just being able to enjoy what we’ve always rooted for, our team, and to be really with people who had the long tradition of history at the university,” Leary said.
But his fondest memories of Boylan were at Boylan’s restaurants and at his home with his family.
“He has a great family, which is a reflection of him and his wonderful wife, Janet. So, he was just a good guy who cared about people,” Leary said.
Fred Meyer, of Forty Fort, said he became friends with Boylan shortly after they graduated high school. Boylan asked him to tend bar for him at the Swoyersville pub starting on the day it opened.
“I said, I’ve never done it before. He said, don’t worry about it, you have the personality to do it. So, I was with him for almost the entire time he owned the place. He was just the main attraction. When he would come in, the place would light up. He’d sit in the corner talking to different groups of people,” Meyer said.
Boylan would often play Irish music at the bar and everyone sang along, Meyer said, calling him “just a great storyteller, a great host.”
“And at one time, he ran trips to Ireland, and he talked my wife, saying to her, he’s got to take his golf shoes because he can rent clubs, but if he goes to Ireland and doesn’t play, he’s going to be really disappointed. She agreed with him,” Meyer recalled with a laugh. “We ran a whole bunch of trips together. We almost got left behind on a trip once, because we were having a good time.”
From left, Paul Maher, Kevin Boylan, and Judge Thomas Burke enjoy themselves during a Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner in 2007. (FILE)
Joe Boylan, the middle of three children, described his dad as having “the biggest heart” of anyone he knows.
“Whether you were a friend or a stranger, he always just made you feel special, most often with a joke or laughter, and he was so kind and generous. He would love to sit down and have a conversation with you and you make sure you laugh, make sure you felt good, no matter what you were going through. And it was infectious. And he made sure he lived that way every day,” Joe Boylan said.
And, he said, his father was “the ultimate family man. He just loved his family. Him and my mom are high school sweethearts. They were married for 52 years.”
In addition to his wife, Janet, and son Joe, Boylan leaves behind a daughter, Shannon, son Clancy, “and five grandkids. Those were his pride and joy for sure,” Joe Boylan said.
Boylan’s son said his dad felt at peace in Ireland, having visited about 20 times. But, his parents fell in love with Sarasota, Florida, and moved there not long after his dad retired. His family was there with him when he passed away peacefully on Friday, his son said.
Funeral arrangements are still pending from the Hugh B. Hughes Funeral Home, but a Mass of Christian Burial is planned for Aug. 1, followed by a traditional Irish wake, Joe Boylan said.