In Memoriam: Clark Madigan, 84
Guided Growth of Manufacturers Hanover of Central New York
Clark T. Madigan, 84, of Washington, DC, who guided the growth of Manufacturers Hanover of Central New York in the 1970s, died unexpectedly on April 14, 2025. He enjoyed a successful second career as a telecom tower entrepreneur.Born in Rochester, NY, he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from Colgate University in 1961, where he played soccer freshman year, was a member of Alpha Tau Omega and sang in the acapella group, The Colgate 13. He pursued graduate studies relevant to his career at NYU's School of Business, Dartmouth College (Credit and Financial Management) and Rutgers University (Banking).
Madigan began his career at the Irving Trust Company in New York City. In 1969, he returned to Rochester, joining Marine Midland Bank as a VP. In 1972, Manufacturers Hanover Trust brought him on board as Chairman of the Board of Ontario Bank, soon renamed Manufacturers Hanover of Central New York, which represented its entry into central New York. Within four years, Madigan had guided its growth from a single bank with eight employees to 12 branches with about 80 employees. He always described it as "a great first experience running a small 'company' with the support of a major bank to back me up."
Rather than accepting a subsequent invitation to coordinate the development of more regional banks in upstate NY, Clark briefly switched his focus to growing a small, privately-owned, independent bank in Lawrence, MA. Then, in 1979, he joined American Security Bank in Washington, DC, to focus on financing companies in the new wave of consolidation in radio and television broadcasting and the rapid expansion of cable TV (e.g., C-Span). From there, he moved to a consulting firm specializing in cable tv and the growing market for telecommunications, paging and cellular phones.
By the late 1980s, Madigan and his business associates had formed a small investment fund focused on telecom businesses, whose first investment was the purchase of a large telecommunications tower in Philadelphia. Almost immediately, he and his business partners connected the dots that the tower carried the infrastructure for all these related businesses and that the demand for towers would run parallel to their growth. Early in 1990, Madigan co-founded and became President of TeleCom Towers, LLC, which eventually owned about 400 towers and managed roughly 2,000 other antenna sites across the United States. In 1999, they sold it to the American Tower Company.
By the mid-2000s, the investment group was on its fourth tower company in which they expected to develop about 200 more towers. When Madigan stepped back from responsibility for daily operations as CEO, he remained on the Board as a major investor and assisted with raising capital. He was a past Chairman of the Site Owners and Managers Division (SOMA) of the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA) and a frequent speaker at industry conferences on various aspects of financing and operating wireless communications properties. He was also a consultant to and served on the boards of several privately held companies, including Westburg Media Capital Corp.; Bay Communications, LLC; Shared Towers, LLC; Mariner Towers, LLC, and ForceNine Consulting, LLC, and a strategic advisor to several financial firms on the future of wireless communications and the tower industry. As one close colleague said, "Clark was a big deal in our industry. He will be remembered for a long time."
Among his survivors are his wife, Karen, three daughters and two grandchildren.
Among his survivors are his wife, Karen, three daughters and two grandchildren.
(Based on published death notice)