John B. Kennedy Sworn In As Town Manager-This Day in Norwood History-June 1, 1950

The magnitude of work which will befall John B. Kennedy, Norwoods newly-appointed Town Manager who was sworn in last Friday and who assumed his official duties in his office at the Town Hall last Monday morning, won’t phase him in the least. He expects it, he welcomes it and he came prepared for it.

Although he did not wish to make a statement at this time regarding his future plans, Mr. Kennedy said he is about to make a study of the entire town government structure and will plan to discuss it with the Board of Selectmen.

“I’m grateful to all the members of the Board of Selectmen,” Mr. Kennedy said, “and even those who did not vote for me have entered into the spirit of cooperation with me. We expect to go forward and do a good, clean, honest and courageous job of administering the affairs of the Town of Norwood” he declared, “in order that we may make one of the best town’s in the Commonwealth, into the best town.”

Winthrop born John Kennedy gave the date of his birth as “the first day of the Iasi month of the first year of the twentieth century,” which transcribed means December 1, 1900.

Norwood’s new Manager, a friendly and affable man. has a straightforward manner and a very amusing way of expressing himself.

Asked where he got that “hit of an Irish brogue”, he countered with “Oh, that’s because my mother was a Colleen”.

By his own admission, he was the worst pitcher Winthrop High School’s baseball team ever had, but the best high-jumper the school ever had. “I was a plain, ordinary garden variety of a basketball player,” he offered, with a grin.

Just slightly over six feet tall lie says he hopes he still weighs 215 pounds and no more. lie has silver grey hair, blue eyes, and a healthy complexion. For his first day in his new job he had donned a blue worsted business suit with which he wore a conservative tie and matching socks.

His family is his hobby, He Is a devoted husband and father. He likes an occasional play, enjoys football and baseball as a spectator.

A member of the Benevolent Order of Elks, Mr. Kennedy also belongs to the Knights of Columbus and the Holy Name Society in Winthrop. He is a member and a past president of the Winthrop Rotary Club, and is a member of the Finance Committee of the New England Waterworks Association.

One of four children of Mr. John J. and the late Helen Kennedy he attended Winthrop Grammar and High School. All his education following graduation from high school was obtained at evening courses In Engineering subjects at Franklin Union. Massachusetts Extension University and Wentworth Institute. Mr. Kennedy took a course for city and town managers at Boston University which he completed last February.

Graduation from high .school saw him learning all he could in the plumbing and heating field and in 1929 he went into the plumbing supply business on his own. That year he was elected Water Commissioner of the town of Winthrop in a part-time capacity. At the advent of World War II, he sold out the plumbing business due to the shortage of materials.

Mr. Kennedy accepted the full-time position as Manager of the Water Department of Winthrop in 1940, a post he held up until he accepted the Town Manager appointment here. During the course of his job as manager of the Water Department he supervised over a million dollars worth of construction.

Before school opens in the autumn Mr. Kennedy hopes to move to Norwood with his wife, the former Mary Dervan whom he married twenty years ago in the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Winthrop, and their two daughters, Ellen 15, and Patricia, 13.

His wife, by the way, is an accomplished musician. She was a concert singer before her marriage and will be remembered by many as a soloist on the old Lovell and Covell hour.

The Town’s new administrative head is a great lover of the youth movement.

“I am happy to find in the Town of Norwood a recreation program all set up.” Kennedy said, “and I will bend every effort to help out the program in order that your children and mine will have every opportunity to participate in the activities which will develop them into fine, forward-looking young men and women.”

He anticipates moving to Norwood with great pleasure and has already become one of the Town’s greatest boosters.

By BETTY ANN FISHER

(All articles were originally published in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)