http://northamptonmedia.com/blog/06/27/2011/city-restaurateur-takes-own-life/
City Restaurateur Bo Page Takes Own Life in Vermont, Police Say
Longtime Hotelier and Restaurant Owner George Page Jr. Had Recently Re-Opened Page’s Loft on Route 5, Left a Lot of Friends, Some of Whom Were Unaware of His Problems.
Bo Page (right) and Phillip Sullivan, from the early 1970s. (Photo courtesy of Phillip Sullivan)
NORTHAMPTON – George W. “Bo” Page Jr., a longtime fixture in the area’s restaurant and hotel business, died Friday night in Springfield, Vermont, from a self-sustained gunshot wound, police told Northampton Media today.
Springfield Police Chief Douglas S. Johnston said police dispatchers received an E-911 call from Page at 7:39 p.m. Friday, June 24, telling them of his intention to take his own life. And shortly later, he said, police discovered Page’s lifeless body in a field off Route 5 in the town.
The death, Johnston said, appeared to be the result of a gunshot and has been ruled an apparent suicide. Officials do not suspect foul play. He said there were no other persons present, and he was unaware of any connection Page might have had with anyone in the area.
Springfield, Vt., is located off Interstate 91 about halfway between Brattleboro and White River Junction.
Bo Page re-opened Page's Loft at the Clarion, brining back what was once the city's finest restaurant. (David Reid photos)
A state medical examiner will be conducting toxicology tests, which will take some time to analyze, Johnston said, adding that the body remains in Vermont.
Asked about notification, Johnston said a son was contacted. Family friends say Page lived on Northampton Street in Holyoke with his wife, Gail. Holyoke police said they did get a request from Springfield, Vt. police and made a death notification to the family on Saturday.
Johnston declined to give further details, saying, “The family has gone through enough.”
Friends and Business Colleagues Mourn the Loss
Page’s death comes six months after he made business news in the city.
This January, Page, 66, reopened the Page’s Loft restaurant at the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center, at 1 Atwood Drive, a reincarnation of the restaurant he had operated in the 1980s at what was then the Hilton Hotel. Back then, Page’s Loft was considered by some the city’s best restaurant, and Page told reporters he hoped the restaurant’s upscale menu would make it a destination location.
(To see the Republican Newspaper story on the Page’s Loft opening, and to see a recent photo of Page, click here.)
At the Clarion, co-owner Curtis Shumway issued a brief statement to Northampton Media today:
“We are devastated by the loss of Bo, our friend and business partner. Our focus today is to help the family and Loft employees in any way we can. He is a great loss to us all.”
Page built, ran and then sold the Delaney House restaurant (right) and the Country Inn Suites in Holyoke.
At the Page’s Loft restaurant on Sunday, the staff was close-mouthed about bad news concerning their boss. A spokesman said there would be a statement issued later today.
Several people contacted by Northampton Media said they had learned of Page’s death from family or friends.
Robert McGovern, owner of Packard’s, a Masonic Street bar-restaurant, said he heard about the incident on Saturday from a mutual business friend.
“It’s a sad day,” said McGovern, who described himself as a friend of Page’s. “He’ll be missed. . . . He had a lot of friends.”
McGovern described Page as “probably the best hotel guy in the area 30 years ago.” He said Bo helped rescue the Hilton Hotel from bankruptcy when he bought it from his father George Sr.
And he said Page and business partner Harry McColgan turned around the failing Hotel Northampton when they bought it in 1985.
(County records show the McColgan/Page Partnership purchased the Hotel Northampton for $1.5 million from the 36 King Street Corp. of Springfield, and sold it the following year for $2.6 million to Rostoff, Inc. County records show a dozen other properties in the city passed through Page’s hands over the years.)
McGovern said he last spoke with Page a few weeks ago, and that there was no hint of a life-or-death situation brewing.
In talking to mutual friends in the past few days, McGovern said, there was a feeling that Page, a meticulous man, had planned his suicide a while ago. What really stings, he said, was that nobody in that circle of friends was aware Page was grappling with serious problems that could have led to him taking his own life.
In other words, he said, Page did not ask his friends for help or let them know what he was considering. “It bothers a lot of us,” said McGovern.
Longtime friend Phil Sullivan described Page as a gentleman and a good friend, but someone who did not burden his friends with recent problems.
A Kind, Gentle Man Who Will Be Missed
Phillip Sullivan, a former city councilor and active member of the city’s Rotary Club, said he was told by a family member over the weekend that Page – a longtime friend and business acquaintance – had taken his own life.
“He was a kind, gentle and great human being,” Sullivan told Northampton Media. Although Sullivan said Page hadn’t been feeling well lately, he said news of his friend’s death was a shock.
“I almost fell over,” he said. “He was a gentleman and a good friend.”
Sullivan said a moment of silence in Page’s honor will be held tonight during an annual Rotary Club picnic at his Island Road home, an event he said Page had been expected to attend.
And Daniel Yacuzzo, the longtime former owner of the Eastside Grill here and friend of Page’s, told Northampton Media Sunday he was saddened to have heard that Bo Page was dead.
“He was a great man, a great restaurateur, a true gentleman of the old school,” said Yacuzzo. “It’s very sad.”
A Major Player in the Hospitality Industry
Page was a longtime player in the area’s hotel and restaurant business.
In the 1960s, Page’s father, George Sr., built the Hilton Inn hotel that has since become the Clarion. Page, who worked as assistant manager, bought the hotel from his father in 1977, when he created Page’s Loft. Within a few years, he would sell the hotel to its present owners.
Bo Page had hoped that the upscale dining at his new Page's Loft restaurant here would make it a destination location.
In the late 1980s, Page built and then ran the Delaney House restaurant on Route 5 in Holyoke, later adding the Country Inn and Suites there; in 2003, he sold them both. Over the years, Page had also co-owned and run the Hotel Northampton here and the former Gold Mine restaurant in Easthampton, which would later become Zoe’s Fish and Chop House.
After moving to Port Charlotte, Florida for a time, Page returned to Western Mass., deciding last fall to lease the Clarion’s restaurant and banquet business, as well as the kitchen and outdoor café; he told the newspapers that he was spending six figures to renovate the place.
One source told Northampton Media there would be no public services, at Page’s specific request.
© 2011 Northampton Media
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