Michael J. Daly - Later Life

Later Life

After the war, he returned to Fairfield and began a business career. Daly worked very briefly as a salesman for an oil company before starting his own manufacturer's representative business, Michael Daly & Associates, in the Southport neighborhood. He was also involved in the operations of St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, serving on the hospital's board of directors for more than thirty years, as well as being a trustee and helping to obtain financial support for the hospital. A Democrat, he also supported the political careers of his brother, Judge T. F. Gilroy Daly, and friend, city politician John J. Sullivan, but dismissed suggestions to run for office himself.

Daly married Margaret Noble Wallace (great-granddaughter of Lew Wallace) in the 1950s and together they had two children, Deirdre and Michael. His brother, T. F. Gilroy Daly, who died in 1996, was a federal judge in Connecticut who had gained prominence as a lawyer for helping win the exoneration of Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of killing his mother in a highly publicized case of the 1970s. Daly died of pancreatic cancer at his Fairfield home on July 25, 2008. His funeral was held on July 29, 2008 at St. Pius X Church in Fairfield and he was buried at Oak Lawn Cemetery with full military honors. The 10th Mountain Division of Fort Drum and the United States Military Academy of West Point performed the ceremony. The ceremony included a three round volley and West Point's bugle sounding "Taps" as preludes to a military helicopter flying over the cemetery.