Legendary cop lost in Swampscott

SALEM – Longtime Swampscott Police Chief and family patriarch Peter Cassidy died at age 79 Wednesday morning after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.”He absolutely loved the town of Swampscott,” Sgt. Tim Cassidy, his youngest son said. “He loved serving it, loved being the chief of police. Even when he was getting real bad with Alzheimer’s, he would say, ?I’m the chief!'”Cassidy was well-known throughout Swampscott for many roles: excelling on the athletic fields in his youth, in the civic arena as an active member of many town organizations and committees, and in a 30-year career in the police department.The son of an Irish immigrant who built the family homestead on Banks Road, property that remains in the family today, Cassidy was an excellent athlete as a youth, playing ice hockey, basketball and baseball. He was the first quarterback for the Swampscott High School football team under Coach Stan Bondelevitch. Cassidy graduated from Swampscott High School in 1954, and served in the U.S. Army as a corporal from 1955 to 1957.Cassidy married his first wife, Judith, when they were both 18, and the couple had eight children in the next decade, Tim Cassidy recalled.”I don’t know how my parents clothed or fed 10 people,” Tim Cassidy said. “He was either working or sleeping; he never missed a game, though.”Peter Cassidy returned from the Army and was appointed as a patrolman in the Swampscott Police Department in 1958. He became a lieutenant in 1967 when he was just 31. During this time, he was taking periodic classes at Northeastern University, and he graduated with a degree in law enforcement on Father’s Day 1978.He was appointed captain of the police force in 1979, and was named chief of police in 1980. Cassidy suffered a heart attack in 1988 while the target of a state ethics inquiry into charges of nepotism, due to his appointment of four of his sons and his brother to the police force during his tenure as chief.Many Swampscott residents, state politicians and colleagues on the North Shore remained supportive of the chief, who was eventually fined $1,000 by the ethics committee, and hundreds turned out to honor Cassidy at his retirement brunch in 1990.Following his retirement, Cassidy became very active in serving Swampscott through town politics. He was elected to the Board of Selectman in 1994 and served as chairman of the board from 1998 to 1999. During his life, he also served as an elected Town Meeting member, town constable and tax collector, and was a Swampscott Rotarian. Cassidy was an active member of St. John the Evangelist Church in Swampscott.Throughout his career, Cassidy continued his love of athletics through coaching many of his children in hockey, baseball, and football, and he enjoyed skiing, sailing and golfing as a member of Tedesco Country Club.He was not a stranger to tragedy, however. In January 1983, Cassidy lost control of his car while driving on an icy road in New Hampshire and got into an accident that killed his first wife, Judith, and injured himself and five others. A scholarship fund in Judith’s memory and in the memory of Cassidy’s brother Francis is annually awarded to a Swampscott High School graduate.Cassidy married his second wife, Pamela Don, in 1999 and the couple subsequently moved to Marblehead.In addition to his wife, Cassidy is survived by his eight children and their spouses, seven of whom live in the area and remain involved in Swampscott and in the criminal justice field. Rich Cassidy and Tim Cassidy are both officers in the Swampscott Police Department. Reid Cassidy is a probation officer at Lynn District Court.”One of my favorite memories was I going to work at the sheriff’s department, I was ready for my first day,” Tim Cassidy recalled. “As I was walking out the door, he was sitting reading the newspaper and he never looked up, he just said ?treat (the prisoners) the way you want to be treated if you were there’ … and so I did.”