Longtime U. S. Rep. William D. Delahunt of Massachusetts, a Democrat stalwart who postponed his unique retirement from Washington to enable complete former President Barack Obama’s congressional agenda, has died following a lengthy- term illness, his family announced.
Mr. Delahunt died Saturday at his house in Quincy, Massachusetts, at the age of 82, news accounts said.
Mr. Delahunt served 14 times in the U. S. House of Representatives, from 1997 to 2011, for Massachusetts’s 10th congressional area. After serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1973 to 1975, he became the city counsel for Norfolk County from 1975 to 1996.
According to news reports, the Delahunt family said in a speech on Saturday that he passed away “peacefully” but that no precise cause of death was given.
” While we mourn the loss of such a tremendous man, we even celebrate his extraordinary life and his reputation of devotion, service, and inspiration”, the speech said. We may always turn to him for guidance, relief, and laughter, but his absence leaves a hole in our family and hearts.
U. S. Sen. Ed Markey ( D- Mass. ) lauded Mr. Delahunt’s much public support as a senator in the world’s money and a prosecutor in the township north of Boston.
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” I met with Bill in Quincy in February, and he was evident and as committed as ever to working on behalf of the South Shore and the citizens of Massachusetts”, Mr. Markey said in a statement. The William D. Delahunt Norfolk County Courthouse’s entry is an appropriate pride because it is open every day to allow visitors to complete their hard work, improving existence, as Bill Delahunt did. The Commonwealth and the nation are better for Bill Delahunt’s perspective and company”.
Mr. Delahunt stepped over from the U. S. House in January 2011. He claimed to have considered retiring, but other senior Bay State lawmaker Sen. Edward M. Kennedy persuaded him that he was required to support the passage of President Obama’s congressional initiatives.
Mr. Delahunt was an early Obama sponsor, becoming the first part of the Massachusetts congressional committee to accept the Illinois president’s presidential bid, according to monitoring by The Patriot Ledger, the paper in Mr. Delahunt’s town, Quincy.
Mr. Delahunt said that after Kennedy’s passing the previous year, he had been considering ways to prioritize things going beyond Washington when he announced his retirement in March 2010.
” It became clear that I wanted to spend my time, the time that I have left, with my family, with my friends and with my loved ones”, Mr. Delahunt said.
