Rowe appointed board member until April election
UPDATED, Dec. 18: Kevin F. Greeley’s seat sat empty for the Dec. 10 meeting, but the Select Board chambers were filled with loving remembrances for the 30-year member who died Nov. 24.
In front of the empty seat, two photos of Greeley, reflecting two sides of his personality, flanked his nameplate. Behind it, a bouquet of flowers offered mute tribute.
Town officials who worked closely with him were not silent. They provided their thoughts.
Discussion afterward indicated that former board member Clarissa Rowe would like to fill the seat until the April election, as she did after Steve Byrne resigned a year ago.
The Select Board plus Town Moderator John Leone, who had to act by Dec. 24, voted Monday, Dec. 17, to have Rowe fill the seat. She must step down from the Community Preservation Act board and not seek the three-year seaty. There were no other nominations.
Diane Mahon, serving as chair in the absence of Dan Dunn, said, “Shock is an understatement,” regarding the “untimely passing of our good friend.”
She read a statement from Dunn, who said he regretted not being present. “Kevin loved Arlington with a quiet, exuberant love,” he wrote, adding he was “full of energy and action ideas. I will miss him dearly.”
Holding back tears, Board Administrator Marie Krepelka said Greeley would do anything for the town.
Town Manager Adam Chapdelaine shared a story about a speech he gave in November at a Rotary Club Flags for Heroes event at Arlington High. It was about John Bilafer, the former town treasurer who died last summer. Afterward, Greeley, who led a communications company, told the manager it was one his best speeches. “You still need to keep your hands from moving around too much,” Greeley advised.
Town Counsel Doug Heim said a phone call from Greeley marked a high point in his day. The comments might show curiosity about the state of law on some issue or just appreciation for a town employees.
Greeley “truly served without a personal agenda” and “had a passion for the town,” John Hurd said. He offered a poem by James Whitecomb Riley, “Away,” which concludes:
“Think of him still as the same, I say:
“He is not dead- he is just away!”
Joseph Curro Jr. cited Greeley’s love of Christmas, organizing holiday singalongs, welcoming children. He “bridged old and new Arlington,” he said.
Illustrating how Greeley could shift positions, he noted his last Town Meeting speech, delivered April 25, 2018. He argued for changing the name of the Board of Selectmen to Select Board. “I have seen the errors of my ways,” he told meeting members.
View the speech on ACMi at 2:06 >>
Calling the death at age 68 “such a tragedy,” Mahon recalled that soon after she was first elected, in 1999, Greeley came to the aid of her family amid a medical emergency. “Good bless you, Kevin,” she said.
Nov. 24-28, 2018: Kevin Greeley, longtime Select Board member, laid to rest
This news announcement was published Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018, and wad updated.
