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ED HOULIHAN 1941-2008

Legacies to downtown Lexington are many

By Beverly Fortune

BFORTUNE@HERALD-LEADER.COM
Ed Houlihan, shown at the Lexington History Museum on old seats from the Opera House, was passionate about downtown. 2003 file photo by Frank Anderson | Staff
FRANK ANDERSON
Ed Houlihan, shown at the Lexington History Museum on old seats from the Opera House, was passionate about downtown. 2003 file photo by Frank Anderson | Staff
Ed Houlihan, Museum Director, Lexington History Museum, on West Main Street in Lexington, Kentucky stands in front of a red light that hung at the Belle Brezing house(a Disorderly House), and at top left, a picture of the Belle Breazing House, bottom left a portrait of Belle Brezing, at top right, a late 19th century picture of East Main Street and at bottom right, a picture of commerical main street in 1889 at the Museum on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2003, Lexington, Kentucky. Photo by Frank Anderson | Staff file photo
External Link Sign a guest book for Mr. Houlihan

Ed Houlihan, who was involved in many aspects of downtown Lexington business and life, died early Thursday morning of a brain tumor. He was 66.

Mr. Houlihan served as vice president of development at Transylvania University, was appointed Commissioner of Parks, Housing and Economic Development in 1978 and was president of the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce. He is credited with getting the Lexington History Museum organized and, until November, was its president.

In December, the Downtown Lexington Corp. gave Mr. Houlihan its 2007 Outstanding Individual Award for contributions to "the growth, vitality and appeal of downtown."

Then-Mayor Jim Amato appointed Mr. Houlihan as head of parks, housing and economic development in 1978. "I trusted him with everything," Amato said.

It was Mr. Houlihan's idea to have Picnic With the Pops at the Kentucky Horse Park. "He took me out there and figured out how to set it up," Amato said. "Then the parks department went out and set up the tables."

Mr. Houlihan also organized the Downtown Economic Development Committee, made up of influential citizens to figure out ways to strengthen downtown. After four years in the Amato administration, Mr. Houlihan became president of the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce, a job he held for more than 15 years.

"Ed was a very bright fellow -- a promoter, a politician, a PR guy -- all the things you have to be when you're president of the Chamber of Commerce," said Don Webb, a retired downtown developer and former chairman of the Chamber board of directors.

To help finance the Chamber's new building on East Main Street, Mr. Houlihan came up with the idea for members to double their dues for one year. "He had taken the Chamber from a couple hundred members to a very large organization, so when members doubled their dues, he got the building financed," Webb said.

"There was hardly anything that happened downtown that Ed was not part of," he said.

Arnold Kirkpatrick, owner of Kirkpatrick & Co., the real estate firm where Mr. Houlihan had his real estate license, said that every place Mr. Houlihan worked "he left vastly improved from when he got there." The Chamber underwent its biggest membership growth while he was there, Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick said perhaps Mr. Houlihan's greatest accomplishment was leading the local effort to permit Lexington restaurants to sell alcohol on Sunday. "We had Ed to thank that we can go to a restaurant and have a drink on Sunday. Without his being stalwart, it would never have gotten passed," Kirkpatrick said.

Mr. Houlihan helped expand Lexington's Sister Cities program with County Kildare, Ireland, and he was chairman of the Irish committee for 24 years. Kay Sargent, manager of the Sister Cities program, said, "If the plane was leaving for Ireland, he would be on it.

"Ireland held a special place in his heart."

Many remembered Mr. Houlihan's genuinely nice gestures. "He wouldn't hear of you taking a cab to the airport," said friend Frank "Buddy" Wilson II. "Ed would get up at 5 a.m. and drive you out there, even in the dead of winter."

Mr. Houlihan's combined interests in history and journalism came together in the Henry Clay Press, which he established in the late 1960s with his uncle Joe Houlihan to republish history books with expired copyrights. The press operated until the mid-1970s, selling a few thousand copies of each book published, including an updated edition of Thomas Clark's history of the Kentucky River, called The Kentucky.

More recently, he was instrumental in getting the Lexington History Museum established, said Jamie Millard, the museum's consulting trustee. "If it had not been for him doing a lot of heavy lifting, getting projects off the ground, it would have not been done. Dr. Clark was the guiding light. Ed was the man behind the scenes who made things happen."

Funeral services will be 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at Christ the King Catholic Church. Visitation will be 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday at Kerr Brothers Funeral Home on Main Street.