By Nancy Dewar
When Joe Fallon, longtime concierge at the luxurious Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel in Boston, heads to work from the South Shore, greetings abound when he arrives at the Back Bay train station; but not for Joe! Local commuters can be heard saying, “Hi Cori.” “Oh, there’s Cori.” “Have a great day, Cori!” Cori is the hotel’s beloved Canine Ambassador and has an ever-growing fan base around the city and on Instagram! “Not many know my name, but they all know Cori,” Joe said with a chuckle. The hotel’s first Canine Ambassador was Catie Copley, a black Lab from the Guide Dog Foundation who joined the staff in 2004 after the hotel’s general manager had attended a conference where a hotel salesperson brought a dog to work. Seeing the positive affect the dog had
on the staff and guests, he told his team about it, and said, “Let’s do this too!” Joe Fallon joined the hotel about 17 years ago and said the final selling point in accepting the job was when he was asked to be Catie’s dog-Dad. “I thought to myself…I guess I have to take this job, as I’ve never been offered a job that included a dog!”
Catie became so well known and loved that two children’s books have been written about her. She was with Joe day and night…at the hotel and back home swimming in the ocean when they weren’t working. She crossed over the Rainbow Bridge in 2017, and the city of Boston declared June 23rd “Catie Copley Day.” Joe choked up a bit when he spoke about her. “She was diagnosed with spleen cancer and given a year to live. Dana Farber frequently held conferences at the hotel, and a group of their lovely ladies suggested talking to their top spleen doctor. He meticulously went through her records and wrote down his recommendations. Angell Memorial followed them, and Catie lived another 2 ½ years.”
18 seacoastbarkmagazine.com
Photo courtesy of Fairmont Copley Plaza
Photo by Zack Deus Photography
I love my job
Meet the Fairmont Copley Plaza Concierge Team
