February 13, 2012

Kevin Hagan White, the 51st mayor of Boston, died January 27 at the age of 82. White was elected mayor in 1967 and served for 16 years. Following is Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s eulogy of Mayor White, which he delivered during the February 1 funeral mass St. Cecilia’s Roman Catholic Church in Boston:

“Mrs. White, members of Mayor White’s family, Father Unni, Father Monan, ladies and gentlemen;

We are here to celebrate a great life. All of Boston joins the White family in your grief. It is hard to imagine this city without Kevin White, but it is true. He is gone, and we are here to commend him to the Lord.

But, weren’t we lucky to have him? And does anyone doubt that Boston was put on its path to greatness by Mayor White?

I am privileged to sit in the chair he sat in. And from my office window I look down every day on the statue that honors him. And on the thriving Quincy Market – which is still what he created – one of the marvels of the urban renaissance that he did so much to spark not only here, but in cities across America. Kevin White, with his grand vision and his irresistible personality, did more to change Boston for the better, perhaps, than anyone in his lifetime. You know all that.

You can’t know, however, what he meant to a wet-behind-the-ears city councilor who shortly after being elected in 1983 shows up at a dedication ceremony. The mayor is presiding. He sees this young city councilor in the crowd and invites him up. The councilor is shy and waves it off. Mayor White laughs, and says, ‘Someday, you’ll be up here.’

Not likely, Mister Mayor. And, as you all know, what happened exactly ten years later was not likely. An unexpected mayor, who was – truth be told – not all that sure of himself. One of his first phone calls: ‘Mayor White, it’s Tom Menino.’

To which he says, ‘Wait a minute. Hold it. I’m Kevin. You’re Mayor Menino. I’m not Mister Mayor. You are!’ Which is maybe when I started to believe it myself. And that was just the start of the affirmation I received from this generous, large-hearted man. I am personally so grateful to him.

But he had already taught this city what greatness in a mayor looks like. Historians like to say that Boston mayors are either ‘downtown’ mayors or ‘neighborhood’ mayors, but Kevin White was both. With the explosion of big-time development he launched, and with his ground-breaking outreach to the neighborhoods – his famous ‘Little City Halls’ just the start of it.

When you think ‘Kevin White,’ you think ‘leader.’ And nowhere in his sixteen years as mayor was that more clear than on the night of April 5, 1968. I was there, at the Boston Garden, when he introduced James Brown.

You know the story. I still remember how that crowd of angry, heart-broken people. We were all angry and heartbroken – how we responded to Mayor White. The city responded with trust. The city believed him. The black community believed him. And because of him, unlike so many other big cities in America, Boston kept the peace. Talk about ‘unlikely.’

But Kevin White had already walked the talk. He had already appointed the first black deputy mayor in Boston’s history – Jeep Jones. I asked Jeep the other day what his appointment meant to Boston. And Jeep told me that Reverend Michael Haynes at Twelfth Baptist Church said, ‘It’s about time!’ Finally, the black community had a way to connect with city hall. And that night in April, what a connection it was!

While Mayor White was at Boston Garden, Jeep Jones was over at Blue Hill Avenue. ‘The mayor sent me over there,’ Jeep told me, ‘to try to keep the peace.’ In the early chaos of that evening, police rounded up three young kids they tabbed as trouble-makers, and Jeep intervened. So the police threw Jeep into the Paddy Wagon, too. The Deputy Mayor went to jail – booked in Division Nine. When Kevin White heard about it, he made a furious phone call, ordering Jeep’s release. ‘Not without the kids,’ Jeep said. And the mayor ordered their release, too.

If Boston has healed from the wound of racial hatred – and I pray to God it has – that healing began with Kevin White. And that should have been the headline of his obituary.

But then, so much of what we love about our city began with him. With his style, his wit, his big smile, he made us proud to be Bostonians. For those of us in public service, he showed what a difference one leader can make. And he set a standard that many of us are still trying to live up to.

And in these last years, Kathryn, you set a standard, too. Of what a loving wife can do for her husband. What dignity Mayor White had to the end! What dignity he brought to our city his whole life long! On behalf of all of Boston’s residents, it is my honor to say thank you to the White family. And thank you to Kevin White. But on one point he was wrong. He will always be ‘Mister Mayor’ to us. May he rest in Peace.”