A Personal Recollection of Frank Bellotti

Above, a critical 1970s news conference with AG Francis X. Bellotti and Governor Mike Dukakis.

By Ingrid Grenon

I suspect that one may become uncertain as to just how many really great men they have met in their life; perhaps it is something upon which one may need to ponder. With Mr. Bellotti, however, I knew right away.

I met Mr. Bellotti in 2012, when I was doing research for a book about the history of the institutional model in Massachusetts (From One Century to the Next , 2014). During my research and interviews, Mr. Bellotti’s name kept coming up over and over again. Most folks are likely unaware that he was the catalyst that brought about heroic reform in the 1970s, within Massachusetts state institutions where egregious and what he called “unconstitutional” conditions existed. Without Mr. Bellotti, I fear the much-needed positive change in our institutions may never have come about, at least not as early as they did.

This one man positively changed the lives of thousands of folks who were institutionalized, as well as providing much better working conditions for the many employees who worked in these places.

It was a beautiful sunlit morning in mid-October 2012, on the day that I drove to Frank Bellotti’s office in Quincy. The foliage was nearly at its peak, and the trees with their multi colored leaves, in hues of gold, yellow, orange and red, stretched like a beautiful mosaic along Route 93 all the way into Boston. Occasional gusts of wind tossed the branches, the leaves falling and dancing across the macadam.

I was looking forward to meeting this man, and I also wanted to thank him for what he did to promote the very necessary reform in the Commonwealth’s institutions. It was reform that I saw firsthand, as a 33-year employee of Wrentham State School.

I was cordially received, and invited into a spacious office that overlooked the Boston skyline. At nearly ninety years of age, Mr. Bellotti appeared robust, and just as vibrant as that invigorating October morning.

In 1962, Francis X. Bellotti was elected Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Prior to the election he visited many Massachusetts institutions, which left a profound lasting impression.

“The conditions were deplorable, unconstitutional,” Mr. Bellotti explained. I traveled around to all of the state schools and hospitals, I was appalled at what I saw.”

“One of the things that bothered me when I was Lieutenant Governor was that this was a problem that the legislature would never see. If the roads are bad and some state senator drives over them, he says, ‘Jeez, I’ve got to fix this road.’ But you drive by the Monson State School, you drive by the Wrentham State School—and you never see the stuff that goes on inside. That’s one of the things that really bothered me—those people were forgotten. Nobody was really aware or focused on their problem. Can you imagine how many vehicles drove by the Boston State Hospital every day and never even thought of the place?”

Mr. Bellotti explained to me that he wanted to do something about the conditions, and he needed to wait until he could make a lasting impact.

Throughout the early 1970s parents and advocates of those institutionalized in State Schools were pressuring the Commonwealth for better conditions in those facilities, but the Attorney General at the time was defending the Commonwealth, not the inhabitants of its institutions.

In 1974 Francis X. Bellotti was elected Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Michael Dukakis Governor. Mr. Bellotti now had his opportunity. Parents and advocates were still filing lawsuits against the Commonwealth.

“The original cases were brought in ’72 I think. And then I was elected, and I did something that I did only one time in my twelve years as attorney general—I didn’t choose to defend this case. When the parents brought the suit I sent a letter to the governor. I refused to defend the suit—I didn’t say it could not be done, although it may have been long and protracted—I said I would not defend it.”

“You did a wonderful thing,” I said.

“Well it wasn’t a very popular thing to do. I controlled litigation in this state. The function of the Attorney General is to defend the state agencies, and I refused to do it. It was not a very popular thing to do. When I sent the letter, I didn’t talk to anybody. I sent the letter to Mike Dukakis telling him what I was doing. I probably should have talked to him first, but I felt I didn’t want anyone talking me out of it.”

I visited Mr. Bellotti again, in November. I felt I had missed something. I though there must have been some significant personal reason for him to feel so strongly about supporting the parents and enabling their historic reform.

“To what can you attribute your great concern for people in facilities, is there anything in particular? What made you care about the people who were locked away behind the institution walls? What made you different than your predecessor?” I asked.

“It just seemed like the right thing to do, “ Mr. Bellotti answered, and then he paused and looked out at the Boston skyline. “You know, I never thought about it before, but my father was gassed in the First World War, and he was institutionalized in a veteran’s hospital from when I was born.”

“So you grew up with your father institutionalized, so to speak?” I asked.

“Yes. When I was Attorney General, he was in the Rutland State Hospital.”

“When you were Attorney General your father was in a Massachusetts facility?” I asked, astonished.

“Yes, they were trying to close the Rutland State Hospital and I wouldn’t let them do it. The same thing, I suppose, was why I was always for women’s rights. It wasn’t a feminist issue; it was a family survival issue. My mother worked for 18 dollars a week as a dietitian while men were making 40 or 45 dollars a week.”

“With your father in a hospital, your mother was supporting that family?” I asked.

“Yeah. But she made 18 dollars a week and a man would have made more than twice that amount. It wasn’t right. Things like that bother me.”

I could see that Mr. Bellotti must have been imbued with a strong work ethic and solid family values from a young age, as well as a deep-seated sense of right and wrong. He supported the parents’ reform, not because he thought it was the right thing to do, but because he knew it was the right thing to do.

“When I was Lieutenant Governor, I always wanted to do what was politically right. This time, I decided I would do exactly what I thought was right—whether it was politically right or not was irrelevant. I try to explain that to young people, but I never get across to them because they always worry about what is politically right.

Mr. Bellotti added, “That’s what I did for the 12 years I was Attorney General—what I thought was right.”

Ingrid Grenon is an author, historian, and much else beside who grew up in Franklin and lives now in Maine.