By Adam Swift
Two men who have contributed immensely to Winthrop will be honored by the town.
At last week’s town council meeting, the council unanimously approved two recommendations made by the memorials committee.
The basketball court at the old middle school gymnasium will be named in honor of Manny Coutinho, and a street corner sign will be placed honoring former town veterans agent Richard Honan at a spot near his home.
“Manny Coutinho opened the gym every Saturday morning from the late ‘50s all the way through to the mid-90s,” said veterans agent and memorials committee Chair Phil Ronan. “Eight o’clock in the morning until three for all the young kids; people like myself who had no skill in basketball.”
Ronan presented a list of some of the people positively affected by Coutinho’s actions, noting that it could easily have been 5,000 people.
“A matter of fact, six of the people (on the list) are in Greece playing an over-70 basketball tournament, and they are all products of that gym,” said Ronan.
Ronan said he had a conversation with Mike Eruzione, and noted that after the overall renovations to the gym, it will at some point be known as the Mike Eruzione Center, but that Eruzione was supportive of naming the basketball court itself after Coutinho.
“(Coutinho) immigrated from Portugal, he’s a World War II veteran, he came, he opened the gym, he taught kids sportsmanship, teamwork and the importance of community,” said Ronan. “Later in life, he would help people get their legal citizenship in this country. This went unnoticed for many, many years.”
Ronan said the proper location for the street corner sign honoring Honan will be coordinated with the public works director.
Honan, in addition to being the former veterans agent in Winthrop, spent more than two decades collecting items and putting together care packages and gift baskets for military personnel serving overseas at Christmas.
“Being a veteran and serving overseas, I can tell you how much a care package from home is cherished,” said Ronan. “Richard did that for all those years when the veterans office didn’t have the budget that I have today, it had a miniscule budget. Richard provided monetary support to my predecessor; he still today provides support to me.”