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The last elected Brahmin

Paul Levy says farewell to John Winthrop Sears, a gubernatorial candidate and the last Republican to win a seat on the Boston City Council. He died on Election Day. Levy recalls an interview he did with Sears about his role as commissioner of the MDC - many of whose tasks Levy would later take on as head of the new MWRA.

I loved spending time with John. He was as public-spirited as anybody, a great conversationalist, and one of the last of the old New England "Yankees" to serve in public office.

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Comments

Met him once. Great guy.

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He led an architectural and historical walking tour of Back Bay once, and brought us all into the private club he belonged to somewhere on Comm. Ave.

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Perhaps this club...

www.algonquinclub.com/
The Algonquin Club of Boston maintains the same commitment as when first conceived 125 years ago, namely, to serve as a convenient and hospitable meeting ...

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was a good man. Not sure he would be accepted in todays GOP as he was a proponent of civil and equal rights. RIP.

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You guys never miss a chance huh? It's like the inverse of the Herald comment section.

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Yeah, it's totally out of line to bring up politics in a post about a politician! How dare you, sir?!

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outrage!!

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Funny you mention that considering the GOP just had several young, minority, female, and gay candidates elected across the country two days ago.

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is gay?

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Lets all pat the GOP on the back for finally electing their first African American woman to federal office. In 2014...

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Met him a few times. I remember him showing up at a "Meet the candidates" night in connection with a Democratic primary and saying, "Well, I can't vote for any of you in the upcoming primary because I'm registered in the elephant party, but I just came out tonight because I wanted to encourage all of you young people looking at politics and public service as a career."

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I could be wrong but I think John Sears pushed for repairs to the Longfellow Bridge when he was MDC commissioner. He wanted to keep it up before it turned into a massive project. I'm happy that Paul Levy's blog talked about the commissioner years. The obit in the Boston Globe barely mentioned his tenure, which was a good part of his public service.

John Sears was a smart, charming, and nice man. He will be missed.

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But have heard all these nice things about him as well. Rest in peace.

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