John E. Connelly

John Edward Connelly (August 1926 – May 16, 2009) founded the Gateway Clipper Fleet in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pioneered riverboat casino gambling along the Mississippi River via his President Casinos empire, and founded a fleet of ships operating out of Chelsea Piers in New York City.

Connelly was born in Pennsylvania. His parents died when he was 16. He was a coal miner and edited a newspaper at Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. In the 1940s he was a Congressional assistant for Congressman Harry J. Davenport.

In the early 1950s he founded J. Edward Connelly in Pittsburgh, which pioneered the concept of incentive marketing, or giving away products at banks and super markets in order to attract business. He was called the father of the practice and was called to testify before Congress after merchants complained it was an unfair practice.

While being treasurer of the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority which was cleaning up Pittsburgh rivers he came up with concept of starting excursion boats to show that the rivers around Pittsburgh had been cleaned up. In 1958 he started the Gateway Clipper Fleet.

He acquired the Sheraton Hotel at Station Square in 1981.

In 1971 he was the Democratic nominee in a race to replace Representative Robert Corbett who had died in office. He lost to John Heinz.

In 1983 Connelly acquired control of World Yacht, a dinner cruise company in New York City founded by Neil Heap and Peter Simonetta in 1969. Connelly got access to three berths in the Chelsea Piers and was instrumental in its redevelopment. He expanded the fleet to three boats. In 1988 World Yacht was purchased by Circle Line for $35 Million.

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