SWAMPSCOTT — In 1989, Dana Mazola wrote the following on his application to join the Salem Police Department:
“My main reason for wanting to become a police officer is that I have an ability to deal well with all types of people — and that is an important aspect of police work. In my opinion, a police officer has to deal with the public and I can do that. I enjoy helping people solve their problems and helping them through stressful or traumatic situations.”
From listening to those who spoke at Mazola’s public funeral service at Salem Common Thursday, it seems he lived by those words. Mazola died following a head-on car crash in Salem Thursday, June 25. Another driver was taken to the hospital and treated for injuries, but the name has not been released.
Hundreds of people attended the Roman Catholic service Friday, led by the Rev. Robert Murray, pastor of Mary, Queen of the Apostles Parish in Salem. Family, friends, Salem residents and city officials, and police officers from Salem, and other nearby departments, such as Marblehead, farther departments, such as Lowell, and state police, all turned out to honor Mazola, who spent 29 years with the Salem Police Department’s Patrol Division, and the last two years with the Traffic Division.
“In my mind, Dana was the salt of the earth, a rank-and-file patrol officer who worked hard every single shift,” said Salem Mayor Kimberly Driscoll.
The service began with a procession of police in vehicles and motorcycles who escorted the hearse onto the common, before a color guard escorted Mazola’s casket to the front of the audience.
Mazola, 56, grew up in Swampscott, where his family ran Mazola’s Corner, and graduated from Swampscott High School in 1981. He started his career in law enforcement as a part-time correctional officer at the Salem Jail and an auxiliary police officer for the Swampscott Police Department in 1988.
Mazola’s many lovable traits — some of them quirks — were mentioned at the service. He had phobias of spiders and ghosts, loved The J. Geils Band, and would do anything to make his daughters happy, including playfully drinking a mixture of raw eggs and toothpaste at a birthday party to make them laugh.
Salem Police Chief Mary Butler remembered Mazola as volunteering for assignments no one else wanted, and as having a “passion for digging deeper, finding answers,” including in his role vetting potential recruits to the department. He was “affectionately known in our department as the dream-crusher, but it was truly important to our department to hire the right officers,” she said.
Butler said Mazola planned to retire in just one month. Retired Salem Police Officer Lawrence Puleo, a long-time close friend of Mazola, said he cherished Mazola’s good sense of humor and their shared experience of responding to all manner of calls, some that were “strange,” and some heartbreaking.
“July 2, 2020, today I bury my friend and brother. I will say goodbye to a man who would piss me off one minute, and have me want to hug him the next,” Puleo said.
Puleo attended Mazola’s wedding to his wife of 30 years, Florene, and watched Mazola’s twin daughters, Amanda and Savannah, grow up. He said the family man’s sudden death feels “surreal.”
Amanda and Savannah Mazola shared happy memories of their father, before playing the song “Imagine” by John Lennon on a speaker. According to the sisters, Mazola said he wanted the song played at his funeral, and Savannah said the song is about “unity, peace, and acceptance, and those are all things our dad stood for.”
“To get us to fall asleep, he would take us for long car rides or roll us around the kitchen singing Bruce Springsteen, Dean Martin, or whatever else he could think of,” Amanda said, recalling her early childhood.
Amanda said her father would stay up and have fun with his daughters after working overnight shifts, rather than going to bed, and that he’d be at every sports practice, game, or other event standing on the sidelines with his video camera, not caring whose view he was blocking.
“He never wanted to miss a moment in our lives,” she said.
Savannah said her father was incredibly dedicated to their mother, Florene, waking up at 5 a.m. to surprise her with coffee and breakfast in bed.
“A man with such pure intentions and goals shouldn’t have his life taken away just like that,” she said.
A wake and service were also held for Mazola Wednesday. Following Thursday’s service, he was laid to rest in Swampscott Cemetery.
