Mayor Thomas Menino’s office broke the news tonight that former Mayor Kevin White has died. He was 82.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the White family tonight,” Menino said in a statement. “Mayor Kevin White was a great friend and a great leader who left a lasting mark of hope and inspiration on the City of Boston. He will be sorely missed.”
U.S. Sen. John Kerry released his own statement:
“This is one of those passings that really marks the passage of time for my generation. We all came of age in Kevin White’s Boston. For 16 years, the mayor shepherded the city through the turbulence of the late 60’s and mid-70’s and in the process ushered in the remarkable city we know today. He was a pied piper who drew idealistic, brilliant young people from Barney Frank to Micho Spring into public citizenship and into City Hall. He was a great and gentle intellect who knew how to wisely wield the power of the Mayor’s office for the public good. Kevin White’s own slogan is now almost a postscript, because now we all remember a leader who was ‘in love with the city.’ You think of Kevin White’s two great loves tonight, his wife of 55 years Kathryn, and the city of Boston.”
