At age 17, Michael Dowling set off from Knockaderry, in western Ireland, for the bustling streets of Manhattan.
Dowling, who is now president and CEO of Northwell Health, said his hometown wasn’t much of a town.
“Calling it one would be an exaggeration,” he said, as he recalled milking cows and raising pigs for local farmers as a young child.
After decades in the public and private sector, Dowling will walk the streets of Manhattan as the grand marshal of the 2017 St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
His selection came on Oct. 7. The parade chairman, John Lahey, called Dowling “the true embodiment of the values we celebrate on St. Patrick’s Day, a leader in a noble healing profession, an educator, a public servant, an Irish-American who has made enormous contributions to his adopted country and who has made us all proud to be Irish.”
Upon hearing the announcement, Dowling was surprised and humbled, he said.
“I didn’t come from one of these privileged backgrounds but I’ve been able to do relatively well,” he said. “That’s something the selection committee looks for.”
Past grand marshals of the parade include former New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly as well as former U.S. Senator and diplomat George Mitchell.
Dowling participates in community organizations like the American Irish Historical Society and the Irish Arts Center. In addition, he directs a program at Northwell Health that brings Irish college students to the company for a summer-long educational placement.
Dowling has traveled back to Ireland on several occasions to convene health commissions in his home country.
Reminiscing about where he grew up, Dowling called Knockaderry a typical irish village with a church, a post office and a bar.
“You know which one was most inhabited,” he joked. Over his first three years in the United States, Dowling spent half of each year working on the docks in West Manhattan and the other half attending university in Ireland. His work not only paid for his schooling but allowed him to help support his four siblings, all of whom are younger than him, he said.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in education, Dowling decided to try living in the United States for the entire year.
“I had no major plan,” he said. “I stayed here and kept working, then one year led to the next. Well over 45 years later I’m still here.”
Over those ensuing years, Dowling received a master’s degree in social policy from Fordham University, where he would return to teach a few years later.
Shortly thereafter Dowling began 12 years of service in New York State government, most notably as the director of health, education and human services.
He became the president and CEO of Northwell Health, formerly called North Shore-LIJ Health System, in 2002 and continues in that capacity.
Dowling said he is already looking forward to the parade.
“It will make me extremely happy to be the representative who walks up Fifth Avenue honoring people from Ireland,” he said. “The one thing I hope is that we don’t have Irish weather.”
