Inducted in 2025
Restaurateur
Veteran

As the stories go, the picturesque waterfront community on the southern tip of the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx, called Silver Beach, was named in the 1920s for the shimmer of its sandy shore and the sparkle of the sun on the East River as it spills into the Long Island Sound. The view from nearly every window of every house on the bluff—formed by the rush of the river over millennia untold—is nothing short of spectacular. Life in Silver Beach is a life lived with respect for the tides, with appreciation for the endless ebb and flow, and with awe for the power and beauty of water. This was Buzzy’s boyhood world.

Michael Desmond “Buzzy” O’Keeffe was born in 1936, the son of Irish immigrants. His father, Michael Sr., was an auto mechanic by trade, and his mother, Margaret “Peggy” Ryan O’Keeffe, had spent time as a hostess in one of Schrafft’s Restaurants—popular Manhattan establishments in the early 1900s. He was the second of three siblings, with an older sister, Marie Carmel, and a younger sister, Barbara, affectionately known as Bubbles.

The O’Keeffe children attended St. Francis de Chantal School in Throggs Neck. When Buzzy was not busy out fishing or exploring the southeastern shoreline of the Bronx in his skiff, the devout and dapper young man sang with the parish choir, eventually soloing at holiday high Masses. A four-year member of the Knights of the Blessed Sacrament and a singer with the Glee Club, Buzzy brought his devotion to his faith and his love of music with him when he headed northwest across the borough to arrive at the Prep in 1951. While the Prep Crew Team had been established a generation earlier by Olympic medalist and fellow Hall of Honor inductee Jack Mulchahy, the rowing squad was unfortunately on hiatus by the early 1950s—or Buzzy would certainly have been first in the scull. He settled, instead, for running with the Track & Field Team.

Nonetheless, throughout his Hughes Hall years—as his Prep buddies (and occasional boatmates) could attest—Michael was never away from the water for long. He was either out on the fishing boat he saved up for and purchased during his junior year or on his father’s cabin cruiser, docked just outside their front door. A hardworking student and perfectionist when it came to his classwork, he also picked up a part-time job down at Schrafft’s on Fifth Avenue, following in his mother’s footsteps. Even as a young man, Buzzy was unconsciously studying the chain’s operations, tucking away ideas on how he might improve the overall experience for patrons—ideas that would bubble up in years to come.

Graduating from the Prep in 1955, Buzzy went on to the University, earning his degree in 1959. After serving in the Army as an intelligence officer stateside, O’Keeffe returned to New York to launch his career in the restaurant industry, purchasing a bar on the Upper East Side for his first venture, Puddings, which opened on St. Patrick’s Day in 1966.

Other venues would follow, but the boy from Silver Beach had yet to fulfill his dream: a riverside dining experience of the highest caliber. After more than a decade of negotiations with the City, O’Keeffe opened The River Café on the Brooklyn side of the East River in June 1977. The River Café received the Parks Council Award in 1978, the Municipal Arts Society Award in 1979, and was selected by Gault Millau as one of the five best restaurants in New York. An Ivy Award of Distinction from Restaurants & Institutions and a Michelin star would follow.

Following in the wake of the Café’s success, Buzzy’s next project was the iconic Water Club, which opened in September 1982—Manhattan’s first waterfront restaurant. For the next four decades, it remained one of the most celebrated venues in the country, receiving the Distinguished Restaurants of North America Award and induction into the Restaurant Hall of Fame.

Not directly on the water, but certainly under the stars (or at least the famous celestial mural), Buzzy also designed and operated The Café at Grand Central in Grand Central Terminal. In the late 1990s, when the Terminal was slated for restoration, O’Keeffe moved the bistro to Pershing Square. Pershing Square has been hailed not only as an eatery but as a triumph of architectural conservation.

Through all his success, the one-time choirboy has never lost touch with his faith. A “Man for Others,” he has served on the boards of the Fire Safety Foundation, the Harbor Foundation of New York and New Jersey, Audubon New York, the University of Limerick in Ireland, and Futures in Education—a foundation supporting Catholic schools and families in Brooklyn and Queens. Buzzy O’Keeffe has also lent his time, talent, and generous support to Alma Mater. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Fordham Prep President’s Club, even offering the Water Club as the venue for the annual fete.

From the sunlit shores of Silver Beach to the river’s edge of Brooklyn and Manhattan, Buzzy O’Keeffe’s life has followed the tides of his boyhood world—always guided by reverence for beauty, by faith, and by the quiet certainty that true craftsmanship endures. In every restaurant, in every act of generosity, and in every commitment to community, he has carried the lessons of those tides with him, reminding us that, like water, hard work, faith, and grace can shape the world.