Tazzini Funeral Home

Doherty's involvement in the community life of Springfield and of the Pioneer Valley was so rich and varied that his friends and colleagues admitted Monday that they probably know only a small slice of what he accomplished."Paul was a pretty selfless guy," said Steve Davis of the Davis Foundation. "You didn't know the whole scope. Nor did he advertise the whole scope of what he did."Doherty, a founder of and partner at Doherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy in Springfield and longtime area philanthropist, died Jan.30  following a 3-year battle with lung cancer.He was 81.Both Paul Doherty and his wife, Dianne Fuller Doherty, have been separately recognized  with the Order of William Pynchon and the Pynchon Medal for Community Service making them one of the few married couples so honored by the Advertising Club of Western Massachusetts.According to his firm's website, Doherty, of Longmeadow, was a trustee of the UMass Amherst Foundation, and a member of Baystate Health Foundation's professional advisers committee.Doherty served on the boards of the the Westmass Area Development Corporation, Roca and Business Leaders for Education and was a co-founder of the Downey Side adoption agency, the only national adoption agency for older children.He was a member of the boards of directors of ING Funds and Tambrands and a past chair of the United Way, the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, the Springfield Boys Club and Mass Ventures.Doherty was former adjunct faculty member in taxation at Western New England University Law School. He was a former member of Gov. Deval L. Patrick's Automobile Liability Insurance Committee, the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education and the Massachusetts Judicial Nominating Council.Doherty graduated from Deerfield Academy, Bowdoin College and Harvard Law School, and received an LLM in taxation from Boston University Law School."His accomplishments were spectacular. But he was the most humble person in the planet," said attorney A.