John McGahan first entered the Gavin House in 1991 as a person who needed help. After a year in residence, he would re-enter as a volunteer. After becoming a licensed alcohol and drug counselor in ‘93, he joined the staff part-time and spent the next decade working diligently to help others obtain sobriety. When the Gavin merged with its sister agency, the Arch Foundation, in 2007, McGahan was named president. After 33 years of service, he retired just last summer.
To honor his contributions to the community, the South Boston Neighborhood House (SBNH) has named him the 2025 recipient of the Joe ‘Dodo’ Nee Champion Award.
“He’s helped thousands of people find recovery,” said Executive Director Kathy Lafferty. “I feel like the neighborhood has had this opportunity to honor and recognize him in [Nee’s] name. So we’re really excited to do that.”
“My friend calls him the Bill Belichick of the recovery community,” said SBNH board member Brian Nee, son of the award’s namesake. “He’s just literally saved thousands of lives.”
McGahan attributed his successes to strategic and intentional planning in both expanding and improving upon the Gavin Foundation’s services. “I was always in the midst of looking at where’s the greatest need right now? What role can the Gavin Foundation play in this, if any? And how do we make it happen?” he said.
His uncanny foresight and mission-driven leadership made him instrumental in extending recovery services to adolescents through the Cushing House and women at Eileen’s House. He was also responsible for welcoming additional facilities into the Gavin family and, alongside Mayor Thomas Koch, opening Gavin Quincy, a 64-bed intensive detox and clinical stabilization program that now bears his name.
McGahan called dedicating himself to serving his community a blessing.
“People helped me. People helped my family. And there’s no better way to show your gratitude than by action,” he said. “That meant, you know, sometimes extending yourself, working the extra hours, doing the extra things because it’s the right thing to do.”
Despite loving his work, McGahan said his decision to retire was in the best interest of himself and the Gavin Foundation. “I felt from my own well-being that it was probably time to step back… I had taken the agency to where I had taken it, and that it was probably time for a fresh face, somebody younger with new ideas.” Even so, he still occasionally refers to Gavin’s board as his own.
McGahan has spent the first leg of his retirement connecting with family and friends. “When you have people in bedded programs, it’s 24-7, 365 days a year. So I really have enjoyed the time, being able to spend time with my wife, who supported my career 100%,” he said.
He spent his first retired summer with his grandkids and recently returned from a Winter road trip he had taken with his wife to Florida and Texas to catch up with some friends.
Though he is not seeking future employment, McGahan is on the board of Action for Boston Community Development, advising the Opioid Remediation Fund. He remains a resource for the Gavin House and his successor, Peter Barbuto.
His message to others who are making a career in helping is to know that nobody bats a thousand.
“As an individual, you get up, you go to work, you do the best you can to help people,” he said. “I believe that God has the ultimate authority. He determines the outcome, and we’re just an instrument that he uses. So, if you don’t take too much credit, you don’t have to take too much blame. And it makes it a little bit easier to get up and do it again the next day.”
McGahan will be officially honored at the SBNH Benefit Auction on March 28. He will be joined by the recipient of the Amy K. Murray Angel Award, Caught in Southie’s own Maureen Dahill.
