Frank Bellotti nonetheless received’t disclose the harrowing secret missions the Scouts & Raiders went on throughout World War II.
They turned the Navy SEALs and Bellotti, who turns 100 Wednesday, was a pacesetter of these courageous males.
“We did guerrilla stuff,” he mentioned. “I can’t talk about it. It’s still Top Secret. I have to keep it secret, I’m the only one left.”
That loyalty personifies Francis X. Bellotti. He stays a mentor to so many in Massachusetts, however his roots go deep within the Bay State.
The former three-term lawyer basic — and onetime lieutenant governor — was raised in Dorchester and have become an icon from Quincy.
Bellotti reworked the lawyer basic’s workplace from a backwater political Democratic Party hangout to a non-partisan first-class regulation workplace. That’s what he can be remembered for.
But again to his loyalty.
Bellotti comes from the age of handshakes and looking out everybody within the eye.
“I’ve always felt I had a responsibility to the people here in Massachusetts,” Bellotti mentioned Tuesday. “I never wanted to be away from my base.”
He turned down a bid to run for U.S. Senate in 1966, he mentioned, saying the pull of this state was simply too robust. He would have been an important governor, too, however misplaced in his three bids.
Presidential candidates got here calling — “all of them,” he mentioned — and he thought John F. Kennedy was an enormous amongst that crowd. “I campaigned for him,” Bellotti mentioned. “I’ve never seen anything like him again. He was almost above the office.”
He mentioned simply {that a} week earlier than President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
He labored with former Boston Mayor Kevin White and has remained associates with nearly each politician who has sat within the Corner Office or again benches.
Through all of it Bellotti has remained quintessential Boston to the core.
“This is a great state,” he mentioned. “We have more educational and medical institutions than any place in the United States.”
He admitted he by no means thought he’d attain the century mark, however Quincy would be the place to be for his one centesimal birthday bash Wednesday with a celebration on the annual Quincy Law Day at Quincy District Court, named after Bellotti.
Bellotti, who helped discovered the Arbella Insurance Group in Quincy, is now in Hingham, however that’s out of necessity. His beloved spouse, Maggie, died in December. They raised 12 youngsters collectively.
Bellotti advised this reporter he reads the Herald “every day.” He’s additionally somebody you may nonetheless flip to for recommendation and an opinion.
Plus, you by no means must doubt his trustworthiness. He’s old fashioned in all that’s good from a member of the Greatest Generation.
Happy Birthday, Frank, from your pals on the Herald.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”