On Oct. 30, Boston's longest-serving mayor, Thomas Menino, who oversaw the city's resurgence, died at age 71 after his lengthy cancer battle. He was the city's first Italian-American mayor who served in office for over 2 decades.
Thomas Michael Menino was a Massachusetts politician who served as the fifty-third Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts from 1993 to 2014. He was known to be the longest-serving mayor of the city. Shortly after his retirement, the Press Herald reported Menino has been diagnosed with advanced cancer in February.
Before becoming a mayor in 1993, Menino was a member and President of Boston City Council. In 2002 to 2003, he was the President of the United States Conference of Mayors. He co-chair and co-founder with Michael Bloomberg of Mayors Against Illegal Units. He taught the practice of Political Science at Boston University in 2014.
According to Mayor Menino's official biography, among his main priorities were: providing every child with a quality education; creating affordable housing; lowering crime rate; neighborhoods in Boston restoration; and promoting a healthy lifestyle for all the residents of the city. The mayor, who died of cancer, announced on March 2013 that he would not seek a sixth term.
Ex-mayor Thomas Menino met his wife, Angela Faletra, in 1963 when the two were playing tennis in Roslindale on neighboring courts. Three years later, the two got married and moved to Hyde Park, where they resided until Menino succumbed to cancer. The couple has two children and six grandchildren.
While being a mayor, Menino was hospitalized several times. He was admitted for abdominal pain and intestinal inflammation. He was also treated for kidney stones. He underwent surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital to remove a rare sarcoma, a cancer that arises from transformed mesenchymal cells, on his back.
Thomas Menino's doctors confirmed in 2004 that he has been diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease that may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract. This 2014, Mayor Menino announced that he had been diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer of unknown primary origin.
Mayor Menino's cancer had spread to his liver and lymph nodes and was starting intensive chemotherapy treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He made an announcement on Oct. 23, 2014 that he would be suspending treatments, as well as his book tour, in order to spend more time with his family.
On Oct. 30, 2014, Thursday, Mayor Menino died of cancer at the age of 71. In a USA Today report, the mayor's spokesperson, Dot Joyce, stated that he died surrounded by family and friends. According to the Boston Magazine, Menino's willpower to undeniably put the needs of residents before anything else will forever be remembered as part of his commitment to Boston.
US President hailed Mayor Menino for shaping his city's fortunes and invoked "Boston strong," a slogan adopted in the wake of the bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line in 2013.
"Bold, big-hearted and Boston strong, Tom was the embodiment of the city he loved and led for two decades," Obama said in a statement.
Mayor Thomas Menino's influences and contributions on Boston are definitely immeasurable. It touched almost every inch of its limit as well as the street sides in between. And though he never won his cancer battle, he will always be Boston's champion and will forever be recognized as the city's mayor.
Mayor Thomas Menino will lie in state at Faneuil Hall in Boston on Nov. 2, with a private funeral service at the Most Precious Blood Parish in Hyde Park the day after, as stated by Boston.com.
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