In New York last year he received the Ireland-US Council Award for Outstanding Achievement. Two years earlier he was guest of honour at the annual Irish-American Business 100, writes Conor O'Clery in New York.
But Tom Coughlin, the burly Irish-American and Wal-Mart legend, has abruptly resigned from Wal-Mart's board and is now under investigation for expense account abuses running to between $100,000 and $500,000. The news comes as a blow to the Irish-American business world, which saw Coughlin as a major success story for working-class Irish-Americans.
Mr Coughlin (55) whose compensation amounted to $6 million last year, allegedly had subordinates create fake invoices to get Wal-Mart to pay for personal expenses.
These included hunting vacations, alligator boots and a dog pen, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal.
The son of a second-generation Irish-American police officer, Mr Coughlin was a frequent visitor to Ireland and recently made the keynote speech at the US-Ireland Alliance K-Club dinner - he has a residence at the club.
When accepting the top honour from Irish-America magazine at the Yale Club in New York he said: "We were a have-not family - an Irish Catholic policeman with a family of 10. We weren't what anybody would refer to as wealthy, but we never saw ourselves as poor."
A protege of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, Mr Coughlin was seen as the next leader of the retailer. All that changed when a subordinate complained to a Wal-Mart executive in January that Coughlin was pressurising him to authorise $2,000 for unreceipted expenses. The next day the subordinate was fired, but the company began an internal investigation.
Mr Coughlin resigned as an executive in January and last month was forced to resign from the board.