The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog.

Former Massachusetts Attorney General Francis X. Bellotti is dead at 101. One of my first interviews with him, shown to the left, with my six-year-old son Daniel Arons looking on, was in 1973 at a local political picnic when he was launching a campaign for Attorney General. Between 1958 and 1990, he ran for office nine times. He was elected to one term as Lieutenant Governor, was defeated once for Attorney General and three times for Governor. His ill-fated attempt to unseat fellow Democrat and Governor Endicott “Chub” Peabody in 1964 seemed to be the death knell for his political career, but running was in his DNA. And in 1974, he was elected to the first of three terms he would serve as Attorney General, demonstrating a resilience that would mark everything he did in his personal and professional life.

At first blush, Frank Bellotti was an old-style pol, a tough guy who relished the rough-and-tumble of the political arena, in it for the sport if not the policy goals. But he had a real commitment to the ideals of public service. A Boston Globe obituary cited a quote from Bellotti to the effect that “Unless I was in government or running, I was only, like, 70 percent alive.” Over his decades in political office, he fought for civil rights (he marched with Martin Luther King in the sixties), environmental and consumer protections. He prized political loyalty but also prosecuted some noteworthy cases of political corruption, which may have hurt two of his gubernatorial runs. Significantly, he professionalized the office of Attorney General, in ways that fostered a future generation of attorneys general like Scott Harshbarger, Tom Reilly, and Martha Coakley. He became a model for attorneys general nationwide, in 1981 honored as by the National Association of Attorneys General as the most outstanding A.G. in the United States.

Frank Bellotti exuded charisma, a seductive combination of power, warmth and humor. During WWII, Bellotti had served in the Navy in a unit that was a forerunner of the Navy seals. He was an Olympic-level swimmer on the Navy team. His rigorous daily workouts were legendary, and his fitness was impressive well into his eighties and nineties. He was always engaging to encounter, whether at meetings of The New England Council or political/social gatherings.

Celebrated New York white collar criminal defense attorney Charles “Chuck” Clayman, originally from Quincy, worked as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, was assistant US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and General Counsel to the New York City Department of Investigation. He clerked for Bellotti in the summers of1967 and 1968. Clayman summed up Bellotti’s impact in words that I leave you with:

“I clerked for Frank the summers after my first and second years of law school.  I learned more about being a lawyer from him than all the courses I took at Penn.  He was awesome.  His commitment to his clients was full, complete and unending.  He treated everyone with dignity and respect.  He made certain that the neophyte lawyer knew a simple lesson – work harder than your adversary, don’t cut corners and prepare and prepare and prepare.  I am in my 54th year of practicing law.  He remains the best lawyer I have ever met.  May his memory be a blessing.”

Frank Bellotti may be the last of the old Old Guard among Massachusetts pols, but he’ll long be remembered as one of the most effective and enlightened ones.