John B. Keaney

John B. Keaney (1894-1979) was a Billerica selectman who resigned from the Select Board in 1952 to accept the appointment as the town's acting postmaster. He later served as Principal Assessor and sat on many town committees. He and his wife, Mary L. (Donnelly) Keaney, moved their family from Arlington to Billerica in 1934. In later years he lived at 341 Boston Road. They had five sons and three daughters. Their son John B. Keaney, born in Arlington in 1928, attended the public grade schools in Billerica and became a Maryknoll priest in Taiwan. Another son, James, became a monsignor.

He first ran for town office in 1938 and 1939, both times without success for the School Committee. In August 1945, when the town accepted its zoning by-law, the selectmen made him a charter member of the new Board of Appeals. He was appointed again for three years in 1947 and became its vice-chairman in 1950, the same year he sat on the Finance Committee. In March 1951 he was elected to the Select Board with 1,377 votes, and he resigned from the Board of Appeals, which recorded its regret at losing a member who had served since the board was first appointed.

He was chairman of the selectmen in 1952 when, in May of that year, he resigned "to accept a government appointment": he became acting postmaster of Billerica and held that post from 1952 to 1956. He chaired the Additional Elementary School Building Committee in 1957 and 1958. In March 1958 he was elected Principal Assessor, defeating William A. Knox and Alden M. Rollins, and he held the office until 1960. From 1960 through 1962 he chaired the committee studying a centralized purchasing system for the town, and in 1962 the town meeting elected him to the Bowers Fund Commission, re-electing him in 1967, 1972 and 1977.

John B. Keaney died on July 17, 1979, his 85th birthday. At the fall session of the town meeting that year a moment of silence was observed in his memory as a former selectman, Principal Assessor and member of the Board of Appeals and other committees.

References

1. Obituary of his daughter Ellen K. Keaney (1925-2015), Burns Funeral Home
2. Father John B. Keaney, MM (1928-2011), his son, Maryknoll Mission Archives
3. USPS Postmaster Finder, Postmasters by City (Billerica, Mass.)
4. Board of Appeals Report, 1951
5. Report of the Board of Selectmen, 1952
6. Vote for Town Officers, March 1958 (Principal Assessor)
7. Annual Town Meeting, 1962 (Bowers Fund Commission; Centralized Purchasing Committee)
8. In Memoriam, 1979