Francis Sargent
Francis Sargent | |
---|---|
Donald R. Dwight | |
Personal details | |
Born | Francis Williams Sargent July 29, 1915 Hamilton, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Died | October 22, 1998 Dover, Massachusetts, U.S. | (aged 83)
Resting place | Highland Cemetery, Dover, Massachusetts |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Jessie Sargent (1938–1998) |
Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Unit | 10th Mountain Division |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Francis Williams Sargent (July 29, 1915 – October 22, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 64th
Early life, education, and early career
Sargent was born in 1915 in
Sargent was a student in the architecture program (class of 1939) at the
After MIT, Sargent worked for the architectural firm of Coolidge Shepley Bulfinch and Abbott as a draftsman, leaving to work as a carpenter for a general contractor to learn the building trade. He then started his own firm, Sargent & Sweeney.[3]
Sargent served in
After the war, Sargent moved with his family to Orleans on Cape Cod, where he and his son started and ran the Goose Hummock sporting goods store, beginning in 1946.[4]
Government and politics
Sargent served as the Director of Marine Fisheries for ten years, from 1947 to 1957. Between 1959 and 1962 he was in Washington, D.C., as the executive director of the U.S. Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission.[3] He was appointed as the state Commissioner of Public Works in Massachusetts in 1964, a position he held for two years.[5]
Elections
In 1962, Sargent ran for a seat in the Massachusetts state Senate, but lost.[3]
In 1966, Sargent ran for and was elected as
According to a biography of Barney Frank, White was the first mayor to declare the city had a race problem, and people wanted to keep him as mayor instead of making him governor. Frank said, "Sargent was seen as a good liberal and some liberals reasoned that if we elect Kevin White as governor, who knows who is going to be Mayor of Boston." Frank also said it was Sargent's popularity that won him the election.[8]
Sargent retired from politics after running for reelection and being defeated by Democrat Michael Dukakis in the 1974 gubernatorial election. Among the factors was voter distaste for the Watergate scandal, and an economic slowdown.[9]
Policies as governor
When Sargent first entered office, the budget was in turmoil because of spending increases on welfare and other benefits. He tightened rules for qualifying for Medicaid and introduced a new corporate tax.[6]
He was governor of the Commonwealth during the
Carl Sheridan, a former Dover police chief, said of the incident, "I think people will most remember him for the busing situation. I remember one time a bus load of demonstrators came out to Dover looking for Sargent and his house. But because the town had no street lights, they got out of the bus and were standing in the pitch black. They got back in the bus and left. Sargent was still laughing about that two weeks ago."[6]
Sargent also created the weekend prison furlough program.[10] After the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the right extended to first-degree murderers because the statute did not specifically exclude them, the Massachusetts legislature quickly passed a bill to prohibit furloughs for such inmates. However, in 1976, Michael Dukakis vetoed that bill.[11]
Sargent also created the
Cabinet
The Sargent Cabinet | ||
---|---|---|
OFFICE | NAME | TERM |
Governor | Francis W. Sargent | 1969 – 1975 |
Lt. Governor | Donald R. Dwight |
1971 – 1975 |
Secretary of Transportation | Alan Altshuler | 1972 – 1975 |
Secretary of Communities and Development | Thomas I. Atkins | 1971 – 1975 |
Secretary of Environmental Affairs | Charles H. W. Foster | 1971 – 1975 |
Secretary of Consumer Affairs | William I. Cowin John R. Verani |
1971 – 1972 1972 – 1975 |
Secretary of Manpower Affairs | Mary B. Newman | 1971 – 1975 |
Secretary of Human Services | Peter C. Goldmark, Jr. Lucy W. Benson |
1971 – 1974 1974 – 1975 |
Secretary of Elder Affairs | Rose Claffey | 1974 – 1975 |
Commissioner of Administration and Finance | David Marchand |
1969 – 1970 1970 – 1971 1971 – 1972 1972 – 1974 1974 – 1975 |
Secretary of Public Safety | Richard E. McLaughlin | 1971 – 1975 |
Secretary of Energy | Henry Lee | 1971 – 1975 |
Conservationist
Sargent was an avid fisherman on Cape Cod and became interested in the environment because he was frustrated by overfishing and the use of illegal nets.[6]
A dedicated conservationist, he delivered the keynote address at MIT on the first Earth Day in 1970.[13]
Anti Inner Belt
Sargent achieved renown among
Frederick P. Salvucci, an engineer, said this of Sargent and the cancellation of the inner belt:
Yes, of course. In many ways the most thrilling moment in the history of the antihighway fight was when we won. And then Governor Sargent went on television and said, basically, he had been the public works commissioner who had fought for the inner belt earlier in his career and, as governor he said it was a mistake and "I'm going to admit that mistake and stop the program and we're going to shift towards public transportation." I mean it was thrilling. It was thrilling for us that had worked hard on it, but also, in fairness to Sargent how often do you see a public official who gets up and says, "I was wrong"? I mean it was an incredibly courageous thing for Frank Sargent to do, and I'm a Democrat. I don't say many good things about republicans. But he was a great man. I mean he had worked for this program. He always had an environmentalist bent to him. [A] lot of people do political analysis as to why he did this or that. I think he just believed what he said. "This was a mistake and we're going to go in a different direction." It was a thrilling moment in the history of it.
And then we actually moved in that new direction. I mean we shifted the funds, partly under Governor Sargent, partly under Governor Dukakis. Those monies that were going to go into destroying those neighborhoods or building the highways were shifted into refurbishing the commuter rail system, extending the Red Line, relocating the Orange Line, basically rebuilding the public transportation infrastructure of the city. That came out of that decision and another component of the same decision – you can go check that speech that Frank Sargent gave – was that the only highways that would continue to be studied within Route 128 would be the depression and widening of the Central Artery and the extension of I-90 over to Logan in an additional tunnel, the two components that are today called the Big Dig. Those were really part of that, if you will, anti-highway – "anti-highway's" probably the wrong name – pro-city decision that was made by Frank Sargent to shift towards a transportation strategy that would build the city instead of destroying it.
And a major component of that was, stop building destructive roads. Another major component was, put a lot of money into improving public transportation, and the third component that we're seeing built now is, take the existing Central Artery that's there and fix it. I mean fix it both from a transportation point of view, because it doesn't work, but also fix what it did to the city by etting [sic] it underground and knit the city back together again. That was a very thrilling moment in my life, when Sargent did it. And I've always respected him a great deal because of the courage that it took to do that.[15]
Sargent also called in Alan A. Altshuler, a political science professor at MIT take a new look at where we were headed in transportation policy. Sargent made him Secretary of Transportation and he presided over the Boston Transportation Planning Review. This review basically led to the stopping of the inner belt and the southwest expressway. Frederick P. Salvucci called them "two major very destructive interstate highways". But, the funds were reallocated towards public transportation, and saw the extension of the Red Line to Braintree and the relocation of the Orange Line.[16]
Later life
After Sargent was defeated in the election of 1974, he accepted an appointment as a senior lecturer at the Joint MIT-Harvard Center for Urban Studies.[13] He also continued to own the Goose Hummock sporting goods store until 1986.[4]
Personal life
Sargent married Jessie Fay Sargent in 1938. She wrote a memoir in 1973 about their time in office, entitled The Governor's Wife: A View from Within. In 1969, she helped to launch the Doric Dame, a group of volunteers that led tours of the Massachusetts State House.[17] They had a son, Francis W. "Bill" Sargent, Jr., and two daughters, Fay and Jessie (Jay).[18]
In
Sargent died on October 21, 1998, in Dover, Massachusetts.[21][22] His wife Jessie died on August 15, 2008.[23]
See also
References
- ^ Current Biography Yearbook. H. W. Wilson Company. 1972.
- ^ "Gov. Francis Sargent, MIT lecturer and alumnus, dies at 83". MIT News. October 28, 1998. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^ a b c d Boyle, Robert H. (April 22, 1974). "Maverick Head of an Odd State". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^ a b Macfarlane, Sandy (June 30, 2013). "'The Goose,' an Orleans hangout for decades". Barnstable Patriot. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^ "Our Campaigns - Candidate - Francis W. Sargent". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^ a b c d "Former Mass. Governor Francis Sargent Dies at 83". The Washington Post. January 4, 1999.
- ^ "Francis W. Sargent, Ex-Governor, Dies", The Boston Globe, October 23, 1998.
- ISBN 978-1558497214.
- ISBN 978-1-4522-3430-4.
- ^ Lauter, David (July 2, 1988). "Prison Furloughs: Campaigns Obscuring Complex Issue". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
- ^ Toner, Robin (July 5, 1988). "Prison Furloughs in Massachusetts Threaten Dukakis Record on Crime". New York Times. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
- ^ sjc (July 22, 2013). "Reporter of Decisions". Court System. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
- ^ a b "MIT Alumni Association". alum.mit.edu. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
- ISBN 1-55963-833-8.
- ^ "15K people per hour, by transport mode". Archived from the original on November 16, 2018.
- ^ "Great Projects: The Building of America . Interviews | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
- ^ "There is nothing like a Dame ... named Chuck". NewspaperArchive.com. Lowell Sun. May 19, 2001. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^ Brown, Thomas S. (September 26, 1978). "Republicans Seek Casey Replacement". Associated Press. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
- ^ Massachusetts Election Statistics 1996. 1996.
- ^ Funeral to be Nov 4 for Francis Sargent. The Boston Globe, October 24, 1998.
- ^ "Francis Sargent; Ex-Massachusetts Governor". Los Angeles Times. October 25, 1998. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^ Marquard, Bryan (August 27, 2008). "Jessie Sargent, at 92; helped broaden role of governor's wife". The Boston Globe.