William T. Desmond

William T. Desmond served Billerica on the Planning Board in the late 1950s, as a selectman from 1958 to 1961, and afterward for more than a decade on the Housing Authority. He was a precinct three member of Town Meeting from 1957 to 1970. In 1957 he sat on the Planning Board under chairman Gordon C. Brainerd.

Desmond was elected selectman for a three-year term in March 1958. The board, with Arthur R. Hallenborg as chairman, divided responsibility for the town departments among its members, and Desmond was given the Fire and Water departments together with Stuart L. Potter, and Weights and Measures with Gilbert W. Griggs. He continued on the board under Stanley J. Bocko in 1959 and George E. Lewis in 1960 and signed its warrants through February 1961. In 1962 and 1963 he served on the town's Conflict of Interest Committee.

The 1963 annual town meeting voted to set up the Billerica Housing Authority, and Desmond was one of its early elected members, serving from 1964 to 1975 as assistant treasurer, treasurer, vice chairman and secretary in turn alongside Joseph H. Johnson and James J. Galvin Sr.. In its first years the authority searched for an acceptable site; by 1973 it had completed five years managing its first housing for the elderly, 64 units at 13 River Street, and was planning a second project approved by a special town meeting in January 1972.

Desmond also took an interest in the town's history. He was a member of the Historical Society committee appointed by the selectmen in the late 1960s and of the Billerica Historical Commission under Charles E. Stearns in 1973. From 1974 to 1987 he served on the Billerica Industrial Development Financing Authority, for some years as its secretary. He died on December 3, 1994, and the spring 1995 town meeting read his name and record of service among its memorials.

References

1. Town officers, 1957 (Planning Board, Gordon C. Brainerd, Chairman; William T. Desmond member)
2. Report of the Board of Selectmen, 1958 (Desmond elected; department assignments)
3. Report of the Board of Selectmen, 1960 (signed by William T. Desmond)
4. Committees appointed for 1962 (Conflict of Interest Committee, William T. Desmond)
5. Report of the Billerica Housing Authority, 1965 (signed by William T. Desmond, Asst. Treasurer)
6. Town officers, 1969 (Historical Society committee and Housing Authority, William T. Desmond)
7. Report of the Housing Authority, 1973 (officers incl. William T. Desmond; elderly housing at 13 River Street)
8. Report of the Industrial Development Financing Authority, 1983 (signed by Desmond)
9. In Memoriam, 1994 town report (William Desmond, died December 3, 1994; list of offices)
10. Annual town meeting, 1995 (memorial for William Desmond)