CityView Magazine

22 June 2023 Mac to the max A leading Fayetteville businessman uses his strong work ethic to get things done and imagine what's possible when we accept the challenge and embrace opportunity. BY JASON BRADY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAUL RUBIERA I f you ask Mac Healy's friends what they consider his most memorable characteristic, without hesitation, they all point to his work ethic. He's the kind of businessman who wants to be the first person on the job every day. "I go to work at about 1:30 in the morning, every morning. I unlock the doors. at's who I am and what I like to do," says Healy, who owns Healy Wholesale Beer and Wine Distributorship on Distribution Drive, just off Murchison Road. "We have 150 families in our business. We try to provide a good working environment for them the best we can: paid sick leave, hospitalization — all the things my father instilled in the business and continues today," Healy says. John Mac Healy — just "Mac" to his friends — is among this year's winners of CityView's Downtown Visionaries awards, recognizing those who had the foresight to help lead revitalization of downtown Fayetteville. Other recipients of the third annual awards are Molly Arnold, the owner of Rude Awakening coffee house and a leader in the Downtown Alliance, and Bruce Daws, the longtime city historian and historic properties manager. e awards will be presented at a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. June 22 in the Aevex Veterans Club at Segra Stadium. Mary Holmes considers Healy the catalyst behind Fayetteville's downtown turnaround. Holmes, the executive director of the Cumberland Community Foundation, has worked with Healy numerous times on community projects. "When I first volunteered with him, it was in 1990 or '92. … We served together on a committee called 'A Complete Fayetteville: Once & for All.' "It was when there were no restaurants or coffee shops or movie theaters or nonprofit organizations or law offices downtown. ere were boarded-up offices, boarded-up buildings, and Mac persistently led the effort to transform our downtown into what it is today," Holmes says. "Over the past 33 years, people may have forgotten when eating at Antonella's (restaurant) or watching a movie at Cameo (movie theater) or doing something fun downtown. A lot of it is because of the leadership of Mac Healy." Healy remembers those days. He served COVER STORY Mac Healy Mac Healy

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