Former state Sen. Frederick Berry died on Tuesday and he has taken his place in that pantheon of celebrated North Shore elected officials.
Those leaders, like Berry, left an indelible mark on their communities and the countless people they helped in the course of their public service. But Berry is rare among that career politician who set about championing a cause and kept his standard aloft across the decades even as he won reelection and represented his constituents.
Fred Berry was born in 1949 with cerebral palsy. The disease compromised his speech and mobility but it is a testament to Berry’s spirit that, at the age of 30, he embarked on a career in politics that, by definition, demanded eloquence and the energy required to crisscross communities seeking out votes and the stamina to attend hearings and meetings.
Berry won election to the Peabody City Council and won the 2nd Essex District Senate seat in 1983. He did it with a smile, with a passion to do work in the public sector for the people whose trust he earned, and with a commitment to make the lives of children and the disabled better.
Across the span of four decades, he never faltered in his commitment to these causes.
Always quick with a joke he once quipped that his family considered him a genius just for graduating first grade. But the boy who endured schoolmates’ taunts went on to earn degrees at Boston College and Antioch College and to set his sights on joining Volunteers In Service To America, the organization dedicated to erasing poverty from the American landscape.
Berry spent 15 months working with residents in a poor Texas community and laid the groundwork for a career in public service.
His rise to the rank of state Senate majority leader is a testament to Berry’s ability to have his fingers on the pulse of statewide issues and his ability to juggle the concerns of 39 fellow senators. The Senate president, like the Massachusetts House speaker, is the legislative leader, but the majority leaders know what every legislator is thinking and leaders keep a mental file cabinet filled with legislators’ concerns and priorities.
“He was a leader on the largest stage in Massachusetts,” said state Rep. Thomas Walsh.
And yet Berry, with his self-deprecating humor and genuine desire to reach out to those most in need, never gave the impression of being a powerful person striding across a big stage.
He could walk into a room and instantly be the funniest person there. But he could also face off with public administrators and private health and social service executives and get down to the nitty-gritty in a heartbeat. He did not wave his disability like a flag but he always held high the standard designating him as a champion for the disabled and disenfranchised.
He was at once, in the words of long-time friend and Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, a “champion” and a “humble public servant.” Being a strong but humble advocate is not a role a lot of elected officials, or anyone for that matter, takes on. Berry shouldered it effortlessly, crossing party lines, according to former state senator and Lynn Mayor Thomas M. McGee, to accomplish his legislative goals and shore up support for priority senate initiatives.
Perhaps the greatest testament to Berry is the fact that Walsh and Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt Jr. consider Berry their political mentor.
Fred Berry is gone but he looks down on the people he loved from a higher place.
