Sen. Thomas Kennedy, a Brockton Democrat and fixture at the Massachusetts State House for more than three decades, passed away on Sun., June 28, according to his family. He was 63 and, an acquaintance of the family said, had been undergoing treatment for cancer and died of complications related to the disease.

Sen. Kennedy, who was selected for the Irish Honors Award for Public Service by the Boston Irish Reporter in 2011, was a member of the Brockton City Council before joining the House in 1983. He won election to the Senate in 2008 where he most recently served as co-chair of committees on Election Laws, Consumer Protection, and Professional Licensure.

In a Facebook post after her brother had died, Mary Kennedy Bardsley wrote: “Our hearts are broken...May you be raised up on eagle’s wings, dear brother Tommy...oh how we loved you so...! Rest in peace.”

In the Legislature, aides remember him as having a passionate voice and prominent role in helping to preserve gay marriage in Massachusetts, and noted that he lived just long enough to see it become legalized across the country.

“On behalf of the members of the Senate, we are deeply saddened by the passing of Sen. Tom Kennedy,” Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said in a statement. “He was a great friend, colleague, and public servant. He devoted his life to serving the people of his community and was proud of his working class roots. His voice will be missed in the Senate. Our hearts and prayers go out to his friends and family.”

The youngest of four children of Robert and Mary (Cruise) Kennedy, Sen. Kennedy was a proud resident of Brockton’s historic Ward 2 in the center of the city who lived in the Cruise family homestead in the house his Irish immigrant grandparents purchased before World War I. 

He was educated by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth at St. Patrick’s School and the Sisters of St. Joseph at Cardinal Spellman High School, graduating in 1969. He then entered the Missionary Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to begin his studies for the priesthood.

In 1971, a tragic accident left Tom a quadriplegic who thereafter used a wheel chair. After a long series of treatments and hospitalizations and rehabilitation, he returned home to Brockton in 1973.

Then-Mayor David Crosby appointed him to his staff as the city’s Ombudsman, a position that he held from 1974 to 1978. He began his political career in 1978 with a winning campaign to fill the City Council’s Ward 2 seat.

US Congressman Brian Donnelly of Dorchester later tapped Councillor Kennedy to serve as a Congressional legislative aide in his Brockton District office.

In 1983, he threw his hat in the ring as a Democratic candidate for state representative from the 9th Plymouth District and won over a crowded field. His long tenure at the State House had begun. Community interests and legislative work on Beacon Hill filled his days until his final illness.

A graduate of Stonehill College, Sen. Kennedy earned a master’s degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Information about funeral services was unavailable at the Irish Reporter’s press time.