I got an email this morning that my former boss, Mayor Peter Torigian, of Peabody, MA died last Saturday, September 11. He had been sick for several months with cancer, and I've expected this news for a long, long time, but it was still a big shock when it came.
Peter Torigian was mayor for 23 years, the longest serving in Massachusetts. Under his leadership, Peabody was transformed from a rundown, post-industrial city that was hemorrhaging jobs and trying to keep out seedy enterprises fleeing Boston, to the regional employment capital of Boston's North Shore. He celebrated the ethnic diversity of the city and its commitment to hard work to reinvent and revitalize itself, and presided over millions of dollars invested in public buildings, roads, and parks.
He loved flowers - the bigger, the better - and under his prodding streetcorners and traffic islands were transformed every summer into a riot of color. He loved parties, and delighted in planning civic celebrations down to the last decoration. He had a gift - a genuis, really - for financial management, and under his leadership Peabody enjoyed low, stable tax rates and high bond ratings. Above all, he thrived on hard work, and demanded commitment, dedication, and rigorous self-application from everyone who worked for him.
Graduate school is a cakewalk compared to the School of Mayor T. I can't say I always loved it - but it changed my life and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
RIP. Mayor. God bless.
Mayor Torigian was the kind of person we would all like to see in "the corner office." He worked constantly, he knew just about every person by name in a city of 50,000+ people. He understood what he wanted in his community - civic pride, community spirit, ethnic harmony, and people making the American dream work for them. He wasn't one to avoid the tough problems or the hard questions. This sometimes made him very unpopular with some people, but in the end you had to respect him for putting the good of every citizen ahead of the special interests or the "loudest" voices. His will be the end of an era and I miss him already.
So long Mayor T... you will always be the Mayor to me.