ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Outgoing State Rep. Robert Fennell makes his final address on the floor of the House Wednesday.
BY THOR JOURGENSEN
BOSTON — Robert Fennell tried to keep the focus on others during his final speech Wednesday to Massachusetts House of Representatives, but he could only smile as legislative colleagues stood and applauded his 21 years in elected office.
“People elect you to be there for them. That’s what I’ve always done while I have been up here,” Fennell said prior to delivering his speech.
Thursday’s remarks in the House Chamber with its high-ceiling and ornately-carved furnishing offered a formal opportunity for Fennell to speak on the record as a legislator. His departure began two weeks ago when he started work as Water and Sewer Commission deputy director, a hiring approved by the commission last December.
Fennell spent Wednesday sorting through the last remaining items in his State House office and saying goodbye to long-time House friends. State Rep. Smitty Pignatelli of Lenox praised Fennell’s “sincerity” and love of the East Lynn district Fennell represented.
“No one was better at building relationships,” Pignatelli said.
Longtime Fennell aide Thomas D’Amario will run the 10th Essex District office in the State House, fielding Lynn residents’ calls, until a new representative is elected on May 10. House Speaker Robert DeLeo echoed Pignatelli’s praise, describing Fennell’s “true love and devotion was to the people he represented.”
Fennell, 59, grew up on Courtney Terrace and graduated English High School in 1974. He started working in the Capitol Diner owned by his family when he was 12 years old, cleaning the Union Street eatery on weekends and working alongside his late father, Bernard “Buddy” Fennell.
Listening to people air their problems across the Capitol’s counter spurred his interest in community involvement and, Fennell, said, “I realized I had an opportunity to help people.”
Elected state representative in 1994, he entered the House in 1995 along with Thomas M. McGee, who won election as West Lynn and Nahant’s state representative and is now a state senator.
Fennell takes pride in working to pass legislation as early as 1998 to combat drug addiction. He legislated against the danger of rohypnol after the drug was linked in published reports to rapes and pushed for restrictions on narcotic painkiller availability. One of the last bills he co-sponsored in the House dealt with fighting opiate addiction.
Fennell’s name had already been removed Thursday from the electronic roll call board mounted on one of the House Chamber’s walls, but he fielded a request from a Lynn constituent even as he walked down a State House hallway to make his speech.
The request concerned reducing the time period for accident surcharges and Fennell arranged for D’Amario to address it.
“Being state representative is not a one-man, one-woman job,” he said.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].
