SALEM - Retired GE Chairman Jack Welch, who ran one of the largest organizations in the world, came home last night to help one of the smallest.

Welch, 71, who caddied at Kernwood Country Club as a boy and played hockey for Salem High School, was the headliner at a benefit that raised $275,000 in donations and services for one of his old haunts, the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Salem. Eastern Bank, which donated $50,000, headed a long line of corporate sponsors.

Beth O'Grady, who chaired the event, told donors that she had run out of words to thank Welch. Instead, she spread her arms wide and hugged him.

"We took Jack up on an opportunity to put this club back on the map," O'Grady said at a private reception before last night's main event, "An Evening With Jack Welch," a question-and-answer session with Channel 7 News anchor Jonathan Hall and an audience of 250 in the Mainstage Theater at Salem State College.

Calling himself a "townie," Welch said he has never been able to let Salem go. He comes back for reunions of the Class of 1953 and invites old pals like Bill Cullen and George Ryan to share his box seats at Red Sox games.

The man who once ran a $400 billion business and was proclaimed the "manager of the century" by Fortune magazine has spent his retirement helping guide the little club on Hawthorne Boulevard. Two years ago, he pledged $600,000 and sat with club officials at his Beacon Hill residence to plot its future.

Last fall, he huddled at Winter Island with board members to check on its progress. And last night he kept a promise to give the club a boost when he felt the time was right.

"If you can just make a small difference in a few lives ... we will change the game," Welch said in brief remarks to donors at the reception in Veterans Hall. "We can really make a difference one by one by one."

The one-hour reception was a chance for major donors to meet Welch and for the guest of honor to see old friends.

"I told him, 'I can still catch. Can you still throw?'" said Ron Plante, who played on the Salem High baseball team with Welch.

Jeff Holloran, a local developer who lives at the end of Fairmount Street, asked Welch if he ever used that street as a boy to sneak onto Kernwood Country Club. Welch roared with laughter and said he had. He even asked Holloran if he lived by the 12th or 13th hole.

Salem State athletic director Tim Shea and several of his brothers talked with Welch about the old Boys Club on Central Street.

"I was impressed when he first got involved with the club," said Shea, a former board member. "He just didn't throw money at it. He wanted a plan."

During the main program, Welch offered business tips he learned playing in The Pit, a North Salem playground; talked about the influence of his mother; and even fielded questions about the punishment handed down to Patriots coach Bill Belichick for filming New York Jets' signals during a game.

"He made a mistake," Welch said. "He crossed the line. This idea that everybody does it ... don't use that argument in business. It's the worst argument in the world."

Welch kicked off the program on another sports note - the Red Sox. While expressing confidence they would make it to the playoffs, he also revealed the anguish and fatalism of a longtime fan.

"We're sinking fast," he said.