Robert J. Huddy, 94; executive had champion homing pigeons

Sitting in a lawn chair in his backyard after work, insurance executive Robert J. Huddy would wait patiently for his champion homing pigeons to cross the finish line from racing journeys as long as 600 air miles.

"He'd have the Red Sox on the radio, listening quietly because he didn't want Curt Gowdy to scare the birds away as they came over the horizon," said his son, Stephen Huddy, referring to the longtime Sox announcer. "Smoking a cigar, looking up at the sky, he was the happiest man in the world."

Mr. Huddy, who lived in Sharon and Westwood for most of his life, died Monday at Caritas Norwood Hospital following a recent heart attack. He was 94.

Mr. Huddy's birds, bred from a famous line known as Bastins, won hundreds of national and international races over the years. But his favorite win came in a 1945 race that originated in Sandusky, Ohio.

That year, his hen Sanduskie Girl finished first out of thousands of pigeons released in stormy weather. Only a handful of birds returned that year, according to racing lore.

Members of pigeon racing clubs described Mr. Huddy as an expert breeder and racer whose generosity and good nature were well known in the clubhouses.

"He felt better you beating him than if he won the whole thing," said racer Bill Hussey of the Norwood Homing Pigeon Club. "He delighted in other people's success, and that's a unique individual."

Born in the Forest Hills section of Jamaica Plain, Mr. Huddy inherited his passion for pigeons from his father, Robert Charles Huddy, a Boston police officer who had emigrated from Ireland. His mother was Mary Ellen (Dawson).

Mr. Huddy joined his first racing club in the South End as a boy in 1926 and joined the Boston Central Club in 1940.

In a 1943 race, Mr. Huddy's pigeons finished first and second in a 607-mile flight from Pontiac, Mich., according to a feature story about him in an insurance industry newsletter that year.

Exactly how many races Mr. Huddy won is unknown. The American Racing Pigeon Union's oldest records were destroyed when a tornado flattened the Oklahoma City offices in 1999, a spokeswoman said.

Mr. Huddy almost gave up pigeon racing forever when Hurricane Carol destroyed his Westwood lofts, killing 150 birds in August 1954.

"One of the saddest moments I can remember from my youth was watching dad going through this mess of trees and picking up the bodies of birds he had raised and putting them in a wheelbarrow," said Stephen of Williamsport, Pa. "He would work, take off his glasses and cry, and work some more."

Mr. Huddy didn't race another bird for 34 years.

He picked up the sport again in 1989, following the death of his wife Florence. They met in the fourth grade and were married for 49 years.

Graduating from Needham High School in 1931 and Boston College in 1935, Mr. Huddy worked for Employers' Group Insurance Co., which later became Commercial Union, for 40 years. He began as a claims adjustor and became first vice president in charge of national claims operations, supervising 104 offices.

Mr. Huddy often traveled to those offices and was one of the first 100 passengers on the Eastern Airlines shuttle, family members said.

He usually sent his son a postcard from his hotel with an "x" marking his room. "I was young and gullible and actually believed that was his room. I would keep that postcard under my pillow until he returned," Stephen said.

Mr. Huddy loved Boston sports teams, especially the Red Sox. He told his family he and his brother Tom would sit in creaky bleachers along Commonwealth Avenue and watch Babe Ruth in hitting exhibitions.

He coached Little League in Westwood for a decade.

After retirement, he moved to Easton, where he loved to garden, and headed the Easton Fire Station Building Committee.

In 2005, he gave away his remaining birds to racers as far away as China, New Orleans, and Mexico. The American Racing Pigeon Union honored him with an award for 50 years of membership.

"He loved his birds," Hussey said. "To some people, they are more of a commodity, but Bob loved his birds. You could tell when he handled a bird and the smile that came on his face."

In addition to his son, Mr. Huddy leaves a daughter, Martha Reynolds of Sharon; two grandsons; and three nieces.

A funeral Mass will be said today at 10 a.m. in Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Sharon. Burial will be in Westwood Cemetery.