Class of 2011
Richard Lafrance transformed a family-owned, family style restaurant in Westport, Mass., founded by his parents in 1955, into a full scale hospitality business, with four restaurant/ banquet facilities and a growing number of limited service hotels. Richard joined the family enterprise, White’s of Westport in June of 1971. He used the opportunity to learn every aspect of the restaurant/ banquet business and spearheaded its phenomenal growth.
Today, Richard is the president and CEO of Lafrance Hospitality Company. The company proper- ties not only include White’s of Westport and other restaurant and banquet facilites in Dartmouth and Westport in Massachusetts, and hotels in Fairhaven, Franklin, New Bedford, Plymouth and Westport in Mass., Dover, N.H., and Farmington/Milton, Maine. The Lafrance family is well known for community involvement and committment through their support of local causes including St. Anne’s Hospital and Bishop Connelly High School, and the United Way of Greater Fall River.
Richard, who is a Vietnam-era veteran of the U.S. Army, has received numerous awards for his community service. In 2009 Lafrance Hospitality Company received theMassachusetts Family Business Association Community Excellence Award, and in 2010 received the New England and Massachusetts Jeffrey H. Butland Family-owned Business of the Year Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
