George Keverian, former House speaker, dies at 77

George Keverian in his office during his tenure as speaker of the House. (THE BOSTON GLOBE/FILE)

George Keverian, who toppled his predecessor as speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives during an epic Beacon Hill battle in the mid-1980s, was found dead in his Everett home yesterday after he failed to show up to read a Dr. Seuss book to first-graders at the Everett elementary school that bears his name.

Mr. Keverian, who was 77, had struggled with his health, said his nephew Ken, of Lexington. He had been hospitalized with congestive heart failure more than a year ago.

"George Keverian served as the definition of the words public service," House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said in a statement yesterday. He added in an interview that Mr. Keverian taught officials "not to forget your roots."

"He was from Everett and was proud to be from Everett," DeLeo said. "He felt that if you were a first term rep or a speaker of the House, you shouldn't forget where you came from."

In 24 years as a state representative, ending with six years as speaker, Mr. Keverian redrew the legislative map twice, in 1970 and 1974. He wielded the colored markers that trimmed the number of House seats from 240 to 160 and used his power to back establishing the State Ethics Commission.

The coup that brought him to power in January 1985 had no precedent in modern state political history. He had served as majority leader and heir apparent under Speaker Thomas McGee, then split with him in 1983 when McGee refused to step aside and give Mr. Keverian a shot at the top leadership post.

Cobbling together a coalition of reform-minded representatives and those out of favor with the speaker, Mr. Keverian took on McGee for more than a year before he at last grasped the gavel. A quarter-century later, the fault lines remain. Older politicians can still say who sided with Mr. Keverian and who remained loyal to McGee.

An elected official for 37 years, until a 1990 loss in the Democratic primary for state treasurer, Mr. Keverian saw his political career falter during the economic downturn of the late 1980s. His tenure as House speaker began in the euphoria of reform and a more open style of leadership and ended amid criticism that he could not control the House when hard times called for even harder decisions.

A lifelong bachelor who doted on his parents, his brother, Jack, and his brother's family, Mr. Keverian liked nothing more than to spend an evening in Everett playing cards with friends or spending time with relatives. His parents were Armenian immigrants who left Turkey before the 1915 genocide. His father ran a shoe repair shop; his mother was a dressmaker.

"He had a wonderful feel for - the phrase we use is 'the little guy,' " said Thomas M. Finneran, the former House speaker who served under Mr. Keverian. "That probably comes from his childhood in Everett. George just had a great empathy and a great feel for what the little guy and the little girl was up against."

Mr. Keverian graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1949 at Everett High School, spent two years at Tufts College, then transferred to Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1953.

Jumping into politics immediately, he was elected to the Common Council, the lower house of Everett's city government. Two years later, he was reelected while serving with the US Army in Alaska and was reelected twice more, in 1957 and 1959. Mr. Keverian then served on the Everett Board of Aldermen before he was elected to the House in 1966.

When he became speaker in 1985, Mr. Keverian was initially praised for an open, democratic style of leadership that departed from McGee's more autocratic reign.

He took over when the state's economy "was full steam ahead," Finneran recalled. "It was like a fabulous rocketship to be riding the first three or four years of his speakership."

But when the financial road got rocky, critics said Mr. Keverian presided, rather than prevailed, over the House, and let the chamber drift when swift action was needed.

Still, he loved the House with an ardor few politicians muster, and for many colleagues, the feeling was mutual.

"The members of the House really became, in many, many ways, his adopted family," said Finneran. "He knew your wife and your family. He knew if your child was sick. He knew if your child became valedictorian, and he would comment on it and send a note. The House was his family, and as you would dote upon your family members, he would dote upon us in many ways."

In 1990, Mr. Keverian ran for state treasurer, but lost in the primary. Tears flowed, not least of all Mr. Keverian's, when he bade farewell at 3 a.m. in the final House session of the year that December.

"George Keverian had a passion for public service and a wonderful sense of humor about politics," Governor Deval Patrick said in a statement yesterday. "His contributions to helping make Massachusetts better are countless and lasting."

After leaving Beacon Hill, Mr. Keverian took a part-time job as Everett's chief assessor in 1995. He was let go in late 2007 when the then-mayor said the position was no longer needed. But Mr. Keverian said it was political payback for supporting an opponent in the mayoral primary, and he returned to work about a year ago under a new mayor.

Mr. Keverian, whose girth was as generous as his spirit, battled weight problems as an adult. With a quick sense of humor that made him a popular speaker for civic groups, he drew material from his own struggles and might begin a speech by casually asking, "Can everyone see me behind this microphone?"

"He'd tell so many jokes, just off the top of his head," said Joseph DeNucci, the state auditor who served in the House with Mr. Keverian. "He could have been a standup comic."

But Mr. Keverian took seriously his responsibilities to work, family, and friends. He died in the house where he grew up and where he cared for his mother until she died in 1982. Friends were never simply acquaintances, and constituents were more than just another vote.

"He was everything to us," said Alfred Lattanzi, owner of Everett Supply and True Value Hardware, whose family hosted Mr. Keverian for several months in the 1980s while Lattanzi remodeled the House speaker's house. "After those 10 months, we were tighter than tight could be. He was like a second father. No one can live forever, but to lose George is like losing part of me."

Mr. Keverian's nephew, who was making funeral arrangements last night, said much of his uncle's important work took place far from Beacon Hill and away from the lens of a camera.

"I meet these strangers and hear stories about how he paid out of his own pocket to help somebody in the hospital or with college," Ken Keverian said. "He was the old-school public servant. It wasn't a veneer to make it look good on TV."