SALEM — Former Massachusetts Senate President Kevin B. Harrington was seemingly born to be both an astute politician and a great friend, colleagues said yesterday.
Harrington, 79, died Thursday at the Kaplan Family Hospice House in Danvers.
"It seemed to be in his bloodstream, to be interested in politics," remembered Ted Buczko of Salem, who served with Harrington on the Salem City Council, in the state Legislature and then as state auditor when Harrington led the Senate. "... He was just very effective, and he understood politics. He was an astute politician, and he had a good family name."
"He was a giant," remembered former Salem mayor Sam Zoll, a longtime friend.
Harrington — the nephew of a judge, father of a mayor and cousin of a congressman — made his own name in politics. He was elected to the Salem City Council in 1957 and then the state Senate the next year. He served as Senate president from 1970 to 1978, altogether serving 20 years in the Legislature.
Former Salem City Councilor Kevin Harvey said Harrington was a father figure, a political mentor and, most of all, a friend for 40 years through good times and bad.
"A 6-foot-9 guy who was at the time the Senate president was my seventh-grade basketball coach. I've been taking advice ever since," Harvey said last night. The last time they talked, Harvey saw that Harrington's body was failing but his mind was still as sharp as a tack.
The friendship persevered.
"One of the things that Kevin instilled in me, from when I was in seventh grade until the end, was the importance to him of friendship and loyalty," Harvey said.
Zoll, who was elected to the Salem City Council the same year as Harrington and later served in the Legislature with him, said Harrington was incredibly involved in the community.
"He was a premier student of government," Zoll said last night. "He grew up here and was part of so many segments of the community."
Zoll, too, said the relationship went far beyond politics and said Harrington was generous in every way possible.
"My wife, Marjorie, and I will so miss his friendship," he said.
In more recent years, Harrington taught classes at least nine colleges and worked hard as a Bishop Fenwick High School trustee to build athletic fields at the Peabody campus. At St. Anselm College in Manchester, he helped found the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
He was the father of five, including former Mayor Neil Harrington, and was married for 53 years to his wife, Kathleen.
Salem police Chief Robert St. Pierre said Harrington leaves behind a legacy of countless protégés who learned from him. Educational institutions, too, benefited: St. Pierre notes that Salem State College's entire South Campus was Harrington's creation, and it in turn was dedicated to him.
"Kevin came up from an Irish hardworking family. He reached the pinnacle of power in state politics, but he never forgot his Salem roots," St. Pierre said last night. "... His passing is a loss to the city."
A funeral Mass will be held next Saturday at Immaculate Conception Church in Salem.
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