By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — The Select Board paid tribute to their colleague, Stephen O’Leary, who recently passed the 50-year milestone of public service to his hometown.
He started his public volunteer service as a 19-year-old college student when he was elected Town Moderator, defeating a seasoned opponent, Phillip Quail, on September 29, 1973. He was sworn into office just two days later moments prior to presiding over his first Town Meeting on October 1, 1973. Over the years he served in many other roles, committees and subcommittees in town, including as a Hillview Commissioner, and in 1988 he was elected to his first term on the Board of Selectmen.
Select Board Chairwoman Liane Gonzalez said she was amazed to learn that he had taken on the role of Town Moderator at the age of 19. “That’s a pretty huge job to conduct a Town Meeting and to have that kind of self-confidence that just floored me.”
On behalf of the board, Select Board member Rich Wallner presented O’Leary with a framed photo depicting O’Leary standing at the podium in 1973 at his first Town Meeting along with another photo of him standing at the podium during his most recent Town Meeting 50 years later, both of which were published by the Transcript.
Wallner said these photo show “Steve doing what he always does, which is he explains the hard things in very simple terms so that people understand. He’s a wealth of knowledge. He’s been a great statesman for us and we’ve been blessed.” The inscription on the photo reads: “Thank you for 50 years of public service from a very grateful community.”
Select Board member Kate Manupelli said she was proud to serve alongside O’Leary and is always amazed by his institutional memory and ability to recall the personal histories of the townspeople who came before them.
She also respects him “as a resource, as a mentor, as a public servant who has been dedicated for that length of time in the current culture when that type of dedication is sometimes dismissed or denigrated, actually, from people who don’t participate in the process,” Manupelli said. “They don’t stand up and man a post, and you’ve done that, literally, for five decades, and that’s just incredible.”
Noting that they don’t always see eye to eye on certain matters before the board, nevertheless, Manupelli respects his commitment to the town, adding, “I am glad I’m here to celebrate this occasion with you. I’m proud to be your colleague on this board.”
Manupelli also thanked O’Leary’s wife Susan and sons, Kevin and James, who were seated in the audience, for sharing their husband and father with the community. “You share him with us and we know that takes from you. We appreciate you for letting your dad and letting your husband serve for the length of time that he has.”
Select Board member Vincenzo Stuto said that O’Leary started in politics before he was born. Stuto said he valued O’Leary’s “wealth of knowledge” and the “time and commitment” he has given to the board as well as the fact that he could relate to the difficulties of juggling the responsibilities of an elected official raising a young family and working full time as well.
“You can only read so much but somebody can bring you up to speed and give you a decade worth of information in a very short period of time, and that is what Mr. O’Leary has done for me,” Stuto said.
Stuto said O’Leary is lucky to have come
“from a world before social media!” Stuto added, “He has helped me a lot because I come from a world where logic is everything and now I am in a world where logic sometimes takes a back seat, for better or for worse. His best advice was that you can’t take it personal because it is what it is.”
O’Leary said he first became interested in running for local politics when a high school teacher gave him an assignment to attend Town Meeting and he was appalled by the process. While talking about the experience with his father after the meeting, he recalled his dad said that he seemed to have a lot of opinions about it but what was he actually going to do about it? He recalled telling him: “I’m going to run against him!” And he did. But he lost in his first attempt. The following year, he ran again, and won.