Longtime Boston Mayor Tom Menino has died at 71 after a hard-fought battle with cancer.
The Democrat, who held the office longer than anyone in the city’s history, died Thursday, according to CBS Boston.
Menino was born in Boston’s Hyde Park and caught a big political break in 1993, after Mayor Ray Flynn was appointed U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. Menino, who was president of the Boston City Council at the time, then became acting mayor before being elected to a full term later that year.
He eventually went on to serve five terms as the city’s 53rd mayor.
His health took a downturn after he entered an unprecedented fifth term.
“I love this job,” he said after a stint in rehabilitation in January of 2013. “I’ll do it as long as I feel I’m effective. I’m not going to sit at City Hall and be a mayor as a lame duck. This city has so much potential. We’ve brought it to a point where it’s better than ever, but I’m not going to let people say, ‘Aw don’t do this, don’t do that.’ We still have challenges.”
“I’m here with the people I love to tell the city I love that I will leave the job that I love,” he said during his retirement speech in March 2013, where he announced he would not run for a sixth term in the fall.
He eventually went on to teach at Boston University and write a memoir. He was diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer that spread to his liver and lymph nodes in March of this year.
Menino once proclaimed, “This is Boston, a city with the courage, compassion, and strength that knows no bounds.”
