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[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: This really is an honor for me to be here today. I know that Mr. Camargo and Mr. Orlando have been working diligently for years to try to get a plaque to memorialize the Citizens of the Year of the city of Medford. We've had some amazing people that have come from our city and they've done so many things on behalf of our citizens. So really today is a day to honor their service, their commitment to our community, and also just so that when people pass through this beautiful building, they can come up, take a look, and they can see some of the spectacular names. And I know that you're going to recognize many of them, and you'll remember the story of what they did when they did travel through these halls and through the City of Bedford Street. So everybody, at this point, I want to introduce Mr. Fred Dello Russo. He is one of our city councilors, and he would like to, this plaque has a special place in his heart that he'd like to express to you. Mr. Dello Russo.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Two things I want to mention. First of all, about the importance of this honor that's bestowed on the citizens of Medford. It's not only just to recognize the good works that these people have It's also important because they're held up as examples and as persons. And I think all of us in the city are inspired by the recipients of this honor in many ways throughout the year. And one in particular has inspired me, and I'm reminded of that inspiration every time, not only I show up to work in the Minor, but every time I walk into this building to do the business of government. And that's my father, Fred DelRusso, who was honored at City Hall. in many capacities throughout the years, not only professionally, but as a volunteer, and certainly as a service here in City Hall, as a member of our city council, and as mayor of the city. So, Dad, thank you for your inspiration. All of you, and to all the people who are mentioned on this plaque, both here with us, those who weren't able to join us, and those who have gone to God, we thank them. for their inspiration and for how they have given us a challenge to inspire us to live towards greatness. So thank you all. And Madam Mayor, we're gonna invite up now Tina Caruso, President of the Chamber of Commerce.
[Unidentified]: She's not here yet.
[Fred Dello Russo]: So Dominic Camaro. Who is like the dean of the College of Cardinals. We'll see. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Thank you for having me.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you so much.
[I5lIrWN8Vh8_SPEAKER_15]: Thank you so much. I wish Tina had come because she was supposed to introduce me as the chair of the CODI Alumni Association. CODI is an acronym that means Citizens of the Year. C-O-D-Y. So I just have a few, lots and lots of thank yous to give. And let me start right here to my left. First of all, thank you all, living citizens of the year, Cody's, and friends and families of the departed citizens of the year, for coming today for this Cody plaque dedication behind us. And let us, the Medford Citizens of the Year Alumni Association, thank Mayor Stephanie Mugini-Burke, especially for making this dedication possible here at City Hall. Let us thank the Chamber of Commerce for instituting the Citizens of the Year award since 1971, with its first recipient, the iconic, and I mean iconic, and lots and lots of names on this plaque, like Fred Jr. pointed to his father, the iconic Fred L. Russo Sr. Where was I? I lost my place.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I found a rolling pop here.
[I5lIrWN8Vh8_SPEAKER_15]: And continue to organize the award to this day at its own expense in the labor. This is the Chamber of Commerce. A big thank you to the living Cody's in the Alumni Association who contributed and funded the making of this plaque that you see here today. And lots of thank yous. I thank, a big thank you to Rick Orlando, where is Rick? Right here to my left. Watch my face again. Thank you, sir. Okay, Rick Orlando, 2004 Citizen of the Year for helping throughout to make this day possible. Thank you to some of the alumni for helping to track down, this is very important, track down the information of the deceased, the departed Cody's, because you know what, and there's 25 of them, which we're going to honor in just a little while, in a few minutes, by a moment of silence, and to track down the contact information of the friends and family of the departed Cody's, and I can see before some of my former students and friends that I, I know their mom and dad was a former Cody that has deceased, and I see them all out there. Now, just a few remarks about the Cody recipients themselves. Since 1971, this is very odd by the way, since 1971, the first one, no Cody ever selected by the Chamber of Commerce and the past recipients was ever born in January. What is it about January? All the other months are represented except for January. One of the Cody's, whose first name is May, was born in May. I mean, this is surprising. Nobody ever born in January, but somebody by the name of May was actually named May. Now, on this list, when the mayor will unveil this little ceremony, you're gonna see, I don't know if you can see it, but you'll know, and I'm gonna tell you about three special things. There are two sets of husband and wife. that were named Cody's, you know, since the year, and then father and daughter. So in 1998, Vincent and Jerry DiClemente, right here, sit right here. We're on it, obviously, with the wife. In 2008, John Lonergan, deceased, obviously, the body was ordered, and his wife, Judy Lonergan, followed him in 2015. I'm pretty sure Judy's out here somewhere. And this, to me, is really even more special because in 1986, Daniel Bates, talk about iconic in the city of Medford, extremely iconic, he was honored in 1986, and in 2013, his daughter Andrea, where's Andrea? At this time, we'd like to pay respect to the departed citizens of the year and observe some moments of silence. And what I'm going to do is very briefly, I know there's 25 in the whole thing of it, but I want to list them. The living ones you can see afterwards, take your time. But here I am, I even brought a little... So, if you don't mind, a moment of silence, I'll read off the names from 1971. 1971, Roman Parkgate. 1972, Louis Grisman. 1973, Kenneth Ames. 1974, Harry C. O'Brien, Sr. 1975, Dr. Salvatore Trena. 1976, Thomas Convery. 1977, Robert Thorson. 1978, John DeHaan. 1979, Mrs. Muriel Morrissey. 1980, Mr. Frank Marshall. 1984, Mrs. Emily Fink. 1985, Mr. John Zaffarelli. 1986, Mr. Dan Bates, I previously mentioned. 1987, Mr. John McGlynn. 1988, Mr. Anthony Lucci. 1989, John Urey. 1991, Benjamin Anabow. 1982, Mr. Robert H. Sarabia. 1993, Laura F. Cronin. 1995, Joseph Valeriani. 1996, Alfred Pompeo Sr. 1997, Wallace Kautz. 2000, Joseph E. Mahoney. 2008, John Lonergan Sr. And finally, 2014, Mrs. Cheryl White. A moment of silence.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you.
[I5lIrWN8Vh8_SPEAKER_15]: And now, if our wonderful, wonderful mayor will do the honors. Before we get to that, I just want to say, come on, Rick. I know you want to say a couple of things. Go ahead.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, you do. Go ahead. Okay, what would you like to say? Hello, everyone. I'm not going to go on. I'm just going to say how a privilege and a pleasure it's been to get to know more of the Cody family. I would say the only regret that Don and I had the past year or so
[SPEAKER_07]: But it's been a great pleasure and an honor to do this, and I thank you very much for your help. I'm so sorry I'm late. I'm sorry. I was talking to Don today, and I said to him, we are so lucky to be here in Medford. Some of us work in Medford. A lot of us live in Medford. I'm so excited that the mayor, Greg Don, I know Mrs. Long had a hand in this, and this is a beautiful day. This is a great day for all of us to recognize our past and our future citizens of the year. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: As you can see, this wall is a living wall. So we look forward in the future to add new names to it each and every year. And the list that Dawn just read off, some amazing, amazing people. And we're just really privileged to have known as many of them. And I know some of you have traveled so far. From Maine, the Zamperales are down from Maine. and New Hampshire. People are here from all the greater New England states, and I believe one from maybe Florida, too. So thank you all for making this trip up. We're really celebrating life here today. This building, we restored it. Between myself and the city council, we put a little over $2 million into restoration for this lovely building. And I think when you walk through it, you're probably not going to notice any changes because we're really trying to stay true to its integrity. But this foyer really is a welcoming point for our city government. So I hope that people will come in and spend some time here and really look at these names and think of some of the stories. And we're talking about in the future maybe having an electronic storytelling machine in here. So you could actually look at a name and then listen about what your family says about them. So we plan on doing that in the very near future. And I think if you turn around and you look directly across from me, we have Mayor Irwin. We have his portrait as well. Mayor Irwin was instrumental in obtaining the funding for this building and seeing the construction start. And his granddaughter, Anne Marie, actually is our treasurer today. So talk about life is a big circle, and it's just really a privilege and honor to be able to recognize Mayor Irwin as well for his deeds in building this gorgeous building.
[gwIgYT_iFzI_SPEAKER_19]: So here it is, the portrait that hung in my grandparents' house for many years. And then when their house was sold, they dedicated it to City Hall. And it's been in a couple of different locations in City Hall, but I think this one is very fitting. He was the mayor when City Hall was built and he found the funds to do that. And I think he wanted a new City Hall because he felt so passionately about public service. He felt like the citizens of Medford and the employees of Medford deserved a place that was clean and safe and beautiful to conduct city business. And so this was a priority of his and he saw it through to fruition 80 years ago. So I'm happy that I am here 80 years later as his granddaughter serving as the treasurer of the city and I learned about public service from my grandfather who really valued public service and taught his children and grandchildren how important it was. He never felt that anybody was more important than anybody. He enjoyed being mayor. He loved being mayor, and he loved this building. So again, I would like to wish Medford City Hall a very happy 80th birthday. It's near and dear to me, and I'm grateful for this celebration today.
[SPEAKER_02]: Happy 80th birthday to Medford City Hall. Happy 80th birthday to Medford City Hall.
[Fred Dello Russo]: Happy 80th birthday to Medford City Hall! Happy 80th birthday Medford City Hall! Happy 80th birthday Medford City Hall!
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember that Mercury had an awful lot of advanced publicity about the new City Hall. And it was a very big thing for the city because it was a small city. and very community-oriented. And when the day came, Mayor Irwin presided, and the dedication took place right in front, in the walkway in front of the building. And as I remember it, I was only a kid, 11 years old, with my dad. And I'm pretty sure they gave us a tour of the building. And it was an exciting day.
[Unidentified]: Happy 80th, Medford City Hall!
[Mark Rumley]: Happy birthday to Medford City Hall!
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Happy 80th birthday, Medford City Hall! Hi, everybody. Thanks again for walking out here so that we can pay tribute to more home and veteran citizens that gave so much to this community and made it the great community that it is today. First, I would like to recognize some of our elected officials that are in the audience. From the City Council, we have President Rick Caraviello. Michael Marks, George Scarpelli, Adam Knight, John Falco, and Fred Dello Russo. And bring them on over here, everyone. From our school committee, we have Kathy Kreatz, Amory Cuno, Aaron DiBenedetto, and Bob Skerry. Welcome. We have our representative, Paul Donato, here. And we have former Mayor Michael J. McGlynn is present. There are some people that touch your lives and they really have an impact, an impact on you. And you know that everything they did was for the betterment of others. And Steve Honeycutt was that man. He never put himself first. He always wanted to be there to speak for those that couldn't. And he led this city so strongly in the Human Rights Commission and the Persons with Disability Commission to make sure that all those had a voice. And we're very blessed today to have many members of his family here. And if I could just acknowledge the Honeycutt family. We have Steve's wife Diane, his daughters Stacey and Perry Royce, granddaughter Erin, His mom, Elaine Honeycutt. Brother, Billy Honeycutt. Sister, Barbara Sherratt. Nephew, Matthew Sherratt. His nephew, David Honeycutt. And his sister-in-law, Heath Honeycutt. Hopefully, I recognize the Honeycutt family. And so, I'm sorry. very important to us. And we have someone with us, our former diversity director, Diane McLeod, who had the honor and privilege of working with Stephen on so many causes over the course of her tenure with the city of Medford. So we're really thrilled that Diane came back today. You know, we're trying to get her back a little bit more, but we're happy to have her back today because she would not miss this for the world, and she wants to pay her tribute to Stephen. Diane. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you, Medford, and thank you for having me back here. It's a very important day for me. And now that the introductions have already been done, I just wanted to start off. Steve Hunnicutt was an electrician here in the city of Medford and around the city of Medford who had a passion about disability issues. I met Steve about 25 years ago when I was interviewing for the diversity director job here in Medford. Another soon-to-be friend and a great person who led the committee was Rich Lee, who will be honored a little later on here today. Both of these individuals, besides being very caring, had a dry sense of humor and always enjoyed a good laugh. It's truly fitting that these two friends are being honored on the same day. During my hiring process, I could tell how truly dedicated Steve was to persons with disabilities. He not only wanted them to grow and succeed as individuals, but also wanted others to understand and accept that all of us are valuable human beings who all contribute differently to the world. He never shied away from standing up for people and issues that may have made some people uncomfortable. Steve was the impetus for the fighting and winning the group home issue here in Medford close to 30 years ago. I believe this was the beginning of the community taking notice of disability issues. As a matter of fact, Rich Lee told me years later that when the hiring committee was formed, there was no one on the committee representing persons with disabilities. Steve went to the mayor and demanded there be representation on that committee, and he was that representative. Fighting for awareness and rights of persons with disabilities was not only Steve's passion, but his family's. As I came to know his wife, Diane, and his daughters, Stacey and Kerry, it was evident this was truly a family commitment. Steve volunteered his time to the City of Medford Disability Commission for 25 years. His only compensation was the minds he changed and the persons he helped. It is appropriate that as an electrician, I feel he enlightened the community. Diane, Carrie, and Stacy, we thank you for sharing Steve with us for over 25 years. Along with your passion and commitment that undoubtedly supported him throughout his life.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: This time we'd like to invite members of the family to unveil. Stephen C. Honeycutt, Chairperson, Medford Commission for Persons with Disabilities, appointed 1993 to 2015. He lit the way for disability issues for an entire community and stood for those individuals facing challenges, dedicated this day, October 19, 2017, by myself. It's a little darker by now, and we have this great plan to light up City Hall on the roof. And unfortunately we moved along a little too quick, but hopefully you'll come back because part of this, he did look like the way for Medford and for people, and he always taught me to have a strong voice. And so come back, please look at it, and then see the lights that are around because they reflect him. So thank you all very, very much.
[SPEAKER_02]: Happy 80th birthday, Medford City Hall, the best city hall in the country. And I stand by that.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Happy 80th birthday, Medford City Hall.
[SPEAKER_08]: Cheers, happy 80th birthday, Medford City Hall.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you so much for being here this evening. This really is an honor for me to be able to spend some time with the Lee family. I mean, I got to know Richard a little differently than most of you. I see all of his girls that he has in the office, and it's appropriate to say so, and his family members. But I got to know Richard Lee through baseball. Our two old boys play ball together. And I quickly learned that he had a dry sense of humor and a really clever wit. And you never quite knew if he was kidding or not. And it was always a fun day when we went to the park. So much so that, like I said, my older boy played with his son Andrew, my son Ryan and Andrew. But I had a middle guy named Connor. And for some reason, Richard decided to rename him Harry. Why? I have no idea, but it stuck. And Harry, when he walked in the park and he saw Richard, eyes lit up and he just was like a magnet going over to him. So I was really blessed to have Richard in my life before I took public service on. And then of course, being a Councilor and being a CPA at budget time, Richard and I returned into We butted our heads together. And it was always professional. We always walked away at the end of budget hearings and could have a laugh together, could shake hands. And that's the way it's supposed to be. You're supposed to be able to leave everything in the room and then go out and be cordial, be friends. And that's one thing that Richard always taught me is that life is bigger than the job and make sure you always do your best. work hard, and you know at the end of the day that you did something good. So I'm really blessed to be here, and I'm with his wife. His wife Cheryl is here in attendance as well. Sherry, we all call her. His lovely daughter Megan is here. His eldest son Andrew. And Mikey would love to be here, but unfortunately he couldn't attend today. But it's just a beautiful family, caring people, and they always gave back to their community. So to me, when I walk down this hall, I think it's just the right place for Richard to be. And we get to share with him every day and I can feel his eyes on me right now. And I think Harry's at the back of the room and he's feeling his eyes on him right now too. But without further ado, I would like to introduce one of his best friends, Mark Brumley, who got to work. He got to play, he got to go to proms, he got to work with Richard, and I know that every day Mark misses Richard. So Mark, please step forward and speak about your friend. Thank you.
[Mark Rumley]: Thank you, Mayor Burke. I think that members of the family would know that the mayor should feel thankful that he didn't call her son Rupert. Everyone in the Lee family would know what I'm talking about. Because Richard got that from his father, and it was an alternate name for almost everyone. Especially elected officials, but I won't go into those often. And I thought Harry was unique.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Harry is unique.
[Mark Rumley]: That was the only one. Most other people would have been Rupert. I do miss him every day. I miss all of the experiences I have with him every day. And I know when I've spoken about him in the past, I can feel his presence telling me, really? Are you going to go on? Why don't you just be quiet? I can't be. Because sometimes somebody special comes into your life. Sometimes somebody comes into your life who's not, never puts on airs, who's never disingenuous, who's always exactly the way he is. He was a genuinely good, loving, hard-working person. So, all of his family members know that. And he did love his girls, and I knew all of his girls. All of them. And he did love them all. But the portrait being here at City Hall is important for a number of different reasons. Not the least of which is, I believe that this is the first time in Medford history, the first time in the history of this building, that a city manager is being honored. And those of us who came up through the manager form of government know that those nine managers who served from the 50s through Richard in the 80s, served the city well, served the city competently and with dignity every day. And one of them in particular, Richard interned with when he was at Merrimack. We were both at Merrimack political science majors. And he was part of the internship program. And he was assigned to City Hall, where he worked with John Maloney, who was the assistant city manager at the time. So later, when they were looking for somebody to be hired to that position, Richard had already experienced it. And John hired him very wisely. Because John ended up hiring the person that I call singularly singularly, the finest human being, elected or appointed, who has ever served the city of Medford. There are no exceptions to that rule. The singular finest, because he was a man of honesty, dignity, character, very, very human, and he knew something that's lost on some others, and that is that the strength of this building is in its people. He said to me on more than one occasion, Always remember, the members of the clerical union are the ones that make us all look good. And he meant that. He understood that work is prayer. That all work is entitled to dignity and respect. And he implemented that day in and day out in the large decisions that he was part of them all, and in the smaller decisions. And it's almost in the smaller decisions that made people be drawn to him because he exhibited love. And love always means truth. Love always means being genuine. And love always means being present to those who need your presence. Now I could give you a thousand stories about all this. I started talking to his brothers earlier, and I consider myself to be one of the brothers in a certain way. And I say to one of them earlier, You know, I can't tell you about the fullness of Ritchie because if I had to, I'd have to go through music and art and sports and all kinds of things that we don't have time for. But when we pause to say that this human being has touched our lives, then we have to do something about it. And what we have to do is to mimic that and reflect that every day when we come into this building and to serve the people of Medford well, the way that he did. because we're not employees, and I mean this respectfully and with love, we are not employees of the mayor, we're not employees of the city council, and we're not employees of any of the state delegation. We are the employees of the residents of the city of Medford whom we serve day in and day out according to the policies that are set by the mayor and the city council, et cetera. But the people that we serve, the one who we're hired by, The people of the city of Medford, the residents, the ones who work every day and come to this building and ask, can you do this? Do I need that? And when we respond to their inquiries, we have to respond the way Richard did, which is, yes, how can I help you? And then we can call ourselves city employees at the highest level. Because the person that served at the highest level for all those years is my best friend,
[SPEAKER_04]: I just want to say on that my family was so grateful. This just feels like the right spot for my dad's portrait. He loved He loved Medicine City Hall. It was his second family, so he's right at home. Thank you.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: So at this time, the Lee family would like to officially take the chair. Here you go. Let's see that beautiful name. It's a modern hug.
[SPEAKER_08]: Happy 80th birthday, Medford City Hall!
[Mark Rumley]: Happy 80th birthday from Medford City Hall! Happy 80th birthday, Medford City Hall! Hey everyone!
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: Thank you so much for being a part of this beautiful celebration of life tonight. As you all have heard, possibly during the course of the evening, this lovely building turned 80 years old under temporal weather. So, of course, we had the work underway. You notice that we did the beautiful plaster job and restored all of the woodwork that had been damaged through leaking and ruining. And we did a new roof on the top and a new dome. And the front, of course, fully handicapped accessible. So we're really proud of the building. New doors are coming. We're just waiting a couple of weeks for them to be installed. There will be new front doors that will open automatically and whatnot. So fully accessible, which is our goal in Bedford. So thank you all for being here tonight. I want to thank the alumni again for participating. They're going to be doing a happy birthday tomorrow in a few minutes. And we also have students from Bedford High School that were up in the lobby that have been playing all evening. So make sure you talk to them about thank you and what a nice job they do. We're really blessed in Bedford to have a rich music program and we're thankful that the kids are always willing to step up and participate and come out and add colors to our band. So thank you alumni, thank you Bedford High School.
[Fred Dello Russo]: You're going to be greeted by the Jingle Bell ladies.
[Stephanie Muccini Burke]: As you know that every year they hold an event right here in the communal chamber where they auction off trees and all sorts of different things. And most of the money goes towards the community family for our hearts. So we want to thank the Jingle Bell ladies for helping us all.
[Unidentified]: Happy 80th birthday, Medford City Hall!
[Fred Dello Russo]: Happy 80th birthday, Medford City Hall! Happy 80th birthday, Medford City Hall!
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