Joseph Kelly; general manager steered MBTA through challenges from 1970-75

Joseph C. Kelley (left) showed off a prepaid T pass in 1975 with Governor Michael S. Dukakis and Frederick P. Salvucci, the state transportation secretary at the time. (UPI)

When he stepped down in 1975 as general manager of the MBTA, Joseph C. Kelly lamented the change in the way some approached their daily tasks.

"There is a feeling among many people today that the less work we do, the better off we are," he told the Globe that July. "In the old days, you'd be glad to have a job and thank God that you were able to work eight hours. Now I think people are trying to duck work."

Never one to skip out on his obligations, Mr. Kelly started out as an accounting clerk and rose through the ranks to become head of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority for five years in the early 1970s, leading the agency during a time of growth.

Mr. Kelly, who lived in West Roxbury before dividing his retirement years between West Harwich and Miami, died Monday in Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston, the hospital where he was born. He was 85 and had lived most recently in the Traditions of Dedham assisted-living center.

Henry Sears Lodge, chairman of the MBTA board that appointed him general manager in September 1970, said Mr. Kelly was "an outstanding choice for the job," a position Mr. Kelly had filled on an interim basis for several months.

As he took over, Mr. Kelly was in familiar territory. He had worked for the MBTA or its predecessors since graduating from Boston College in 1947 as an accounting major, at first crunching numbers for the Boston Elevated Railway.

The son of Irish immigrants, Mr. Kelly grew up in Roxbury. His father was a mechanic for the Boston Elevated, known as the BERY or simply the El.

Mr. Kelly graduated from Roxbury Memorial High School and his years at BC were interrupted by World War II service in India with the Army Air Corps.

After graduating from BC, he was hired by the Boston Elevated just before the Legislature purchased all outstanding shares of the company and created the Massachusetts Transportation Authority. In 1964, the MTA was dissolved and the MBTA was established.

"He just worked his way up steadily, one step at a time," said his daughter Joan Sanz of Miami.

Early on, Mr. Kelly met Elizabeth Smith, a statistician for the Boston Elevated, whom he married in 1951. She died in 2006.

Among the positions Mr. Kelly held before becoming the general manager were deputy treasurer-comptroller and treasurer-comptroller.

"He was a guy who always had a huge pressure job, and he never showed it, not one iota," said his daughter, Christine Kenney of West Roxbury.

"He was a pretty calm guy," Sanz said. "If something really bad happened, he didn't bring it home; he just dealt with it. When he retired, he had literally hundreds of sick days. He never took a day off, ever."

That kind of dedication forced Mr. Kelly to make a difficult decision, and he chose work, though it probably was a close call.

Devoted to the Boston College football team, he missed only three home games after returning from World War II, his daughters said. Along with skipping one game because of a work conflict, he missed another when he could not reschedule a medical treatment. The third absence occurred when one of his daughters was married on a home game day. Mr. Kelly insisted on having a television at the reception so he could keep tabs on the team, his daughters recalled.

Even in retirement, he would not depart for winters in Miami until the football season ended.

"His whole year was by the BC football schedule," Kenney said. "Up until a certain point, he used to go to the away games, too."

At the MBTA, Mr. Kelly became general manager as the authority was struggling with deficits. When his successor as chief of the agency announced that the fare structure needed adjusting, Mr. Kelly told the Globe in 1975: "I hope he has better luck than I did about three years ago when I proposed a five-cent increase in bus fares, from 20 cents to 25 cents." That proposal had been voted down by the MBTA Advisory Board.

Instead, Mr. Kelly often turned to other funding sources and became adept at securing grants and federal money to supplement the system's revenue.

"He had a reputation: If there was money to be got, he got it," Sanz said. "They called him the doctor of deficit."

After retiring from the MBTA in 1975, Mr. Kelly formed a transportation consulting company with Lodge, his daughters said, and also worked with other consulting firms. In 1993, the American Public Transportation Association, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., honored Mr. Kelly for his years in the field.

And while work took up much of Mr. Kelly's time during his years with the MBTA, his daughters said he made sure to set aside hours for his wife, children, and his extended family.

"Every weekend we would spend visiting all our Irish relatives in nursing homes," Kenney said. "He was so good to the elderly people in his family. He was constantly visiting his maiden aunts. He loved everybody."

In addition to his daughters Joan and Christine, Mr. Kelly leaves another daughter, Judith Flaherty of Dedham; a sister, Mary Shea of West Roxbury; four granddaughters; and two grandsons.

A funeral Mass will be said at 9 a.m. Saturday in St. Denis Church in Westwood. Burial will be in the National Veterans Cemetery in Bourne.