Members of the Williamstown Police Department stand at attention during Thursday's memorial for John M. 'Mike' Kennedy, former police chief.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — John M. "Mike" Kennedy was remembered Thursday as a true man of peace.
"Mother Theresa, in looking around at the world she lived in, sometimes would find a lack of peace," the Rev. John P. McDonagh told the hundreds of mourners gathered at Eastlawn Cemetery. "She would pose the question, 'If we have no peace, we have forgotten that we belong to one another.'
"Mike seemed to understand this, both as a criminal justice professional and as an advocate for veterans."
Kennedy, 75, died last month after a lifetime of service to his nation and his community.
A Missouri native who grew up in Williamstown, Kennedy served in the Army, attaining the rank of sergeant, before returning to his hometown and working as a police officer from 1970 until his retirement in 2000, a tenure that included 11 years as chief.
In more recent years, he was an active member of the American Legion Post 152, whose members voted last month to name the post in his honor, and an advocate for veterans looking to navigate a bureaucracy that sometimes seemed designed to deny them the benefits they deserved.
"[Kennedy understood], frankly, that people don't know any peace if they have suffered injustice," McDonagh said. "Mike seemed to embody this by his presence — not so much by what he said, he was not a man of many words, as we know — but, by his presence, that we belong to each other.
"People, you and I, can really do some dumb things, especially when we're hurt. Mike had an ability to sit with people, rather than arresting them, taking them to Burger King for some food and conversation. Later, listening to the hurt that veterans suffered, Mike, you made us think of how we do belong to each other."
McDonagh chose for his main reading a passage from the Book of Wisdom, which reads, in part, "The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction
and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace."
The service on Wednesday morning included honors from both the American Legion and the Williamstown Police Department.
The Legion provided a 21-gun salute, the playing of taps and a flag-folding ceremony with presentation to the Kennedy family.
The WPD provided the End of Watch Call ceremony in recognition of Kennedy's legacy of service to the community.
The service ended with the words of the Williamstown dispatcher, who told the mourners, "Although he is gone, he will never be forgotten. Chief, we have the watch from here, sir."
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Mount Greylock's McCandless Announces Resignation
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff Updated 08:33AM
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — For the fourth time in the last 10 years, the Mount Greylock Regional School District will be looking for a new permanent superintendent.
After four years at the helm and just one year into his current contract, Jason McCandless is stepping down.
The regional School Committee has a special meeting scheduled for Wednesday night with a brief but significant agenda. Item four on the agenda: to discuss the resignations of the superintendent and the principal at Williamstown Elementary School.
Item five refers to the next steps for the committee, including, perhaps, hiring another interim superintendent to lead the Lanesborough-Williamstown district.
McCandless made his announcement on Friday in an email to the district's "families and friends."
"It's with a heavy heart that I write to share with you that I will be resigning as superintendent following the end of the school year," the email begins.
McCandless' email gives no indication of his reason for leaving. Instead, it characteristically thanks those he served for giving him the opportunity in a position he has held since 2020.
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