By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

It was only right that Boston paused last week to honor the January 27th passing of Kevin H. White.  Over nearly four centuries, Boston has had colorful mayors, charismatic mayors, able mayors and even a few truly visionary mayors.  But only rarely are all those qualities found in one leader – in Boston or anywhere else.  Kevin White had them all.

Here in Somerville, we have a terrific view of the Boston skyline – and it’s amazing to realize how much that skyline was shaped by White’s determination to make Boston a world-class city.

White deserves much – in some cases, almost all – of the credit for: Quincy Market; Downtown Crossing; the Harborwalk; Copley Place; “infill” housing development instead of wholesale demolition and clearance; and scores of other development initiatives that changed Boston’s face and jump-started its future.  With Summerthing and the Concerts on the Common, he also gave Boston a new appreciation for outdoor events.

When he became mayor in 1968, Boston was still seen as a stodgy, parochial city in decline.  Like most American cities, it was losing population to its suburbs. When he left office at the end of 1983, Boston was widely acknowledged as one of the most dynamic and engaging cities in America.  The U.S. Bicentennial celebration, the visit of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and the arrival of Operation Sail’s Tall Ships flotilla in 1976 gave Boston a chance to shine in the national spotlight.   (In popular culture, Boston became a hot property: In 1968, there were no nationally-broadcast television series set in Boston.  When he stepped down, St. Elsewhere and Cheers were already hits and Spenser for Hire was in production.)

In the recent media coverage of White’s life and legacy, much has been made of his efforts to calm racial tensions in 1968 after the murder of Martin Luther King, and of his long, difficult struggle to keep Boston from falling apart when the City was required to use busing to integrate its public schools in the mid-1970s.  Certainly those were dramatic events, and yet they were hardly the ones that defined the man or his era in Boston history.  Some commentators have also chewed over the period at the end of his tenure when a young federal prosecutor named William Weld went after White with the full power of his office in a relentless investigation that damaged White’s reputation but never resulted in a single, formal charge of misconduct against White himself.

But for those of us privileged to serve as working mayors, White’s true legacy can be boiled down to three words: vision, enthusiasm and tenacity.

Kevin White and his team worked incredibly hard at making Boston a leader in urban governance.  He believed in, and used, zero-based budgeting, performance management and transit-oriented development at a time when few people in the nation even knew those terms existed.  He attracted and encouraged some of the brightest minds of his day – and he was comfortable with the intellectual challenge they brought to him and to his administration.

Many of the people who worked with Kevin White have gone on to prominent careers in public service.  Congressman Barney Frank started out as a shockingly young aide in the first White Administration; former state Transportation Secretary Fred Salvucci – who still advises Somerville on transportation issues – worked in several jobs for Kevin White; Paul Grogan is President of the Boston Foundation.  The list goes on and on.

One of the many young people inspired by Kevin White to enter a career of public service is our own Alderman at Large Bruce Desmond, who joined the mayor’s office as a young policy analyst in 1979.  Bruce said recently of his former boss, “What I remember most was how much he expected from us – and from himself.  He defined for me what it meant to be both a professional and a public servant.”

“I had only a small role in his administration but I was proud of what we were doing,” says Bruce of his years with White.  “I remember that the Globe ran a picture of the lights blazing away at 11 at night, and the caption read something like ‘But are they really there?’  The answer to that question was ‘Yes.’  We played hard, and had a lot of fun, but mostly we worked, because there was so much going on and because we knew it was worthwhile.”

Bruce’s direct experience of White’s energy and enthusiasm – and that pride in doing something that mattered – has been a big factor in his own lifelong commitment to public service.  But since I never knew him personally, the quality of Kevin White that I cherish above all others is that he was always looking ahead.

Throughout his mayoral career, White had a vision of what Boston could be, and should be, in ten or twenty years – and he worked steadily toward fulfilling that vision.  He succeeded magnificently – and his record of achievement continues to inspire all of us who go work every day in city halls across Massachusetts.  When I talk about “governing today with an eye on tomorrow,” I’m referring to exactly the kind of forward thinking that Kevin White preached and practiced as mayor.

May he rest in peace and honor.