Remembering Paul K. Kennedy, son and benefactor of St. Peter’s parish

By Edward Roche, Dorchester

To the Editor:

OFD means something very special to those people that have moved on to new homes outside of our city but who haven’t forgotten where they came from. I am privileged to have worked beside Paul Kennedy over the years on renovations to the parish of our birth, St. Peter’s. An especially memorable project was the installation of new water and sewer service to the lower church and the fit- out of a kitchen and bathrooms to bring the lower church up to current occupancy and useful standards.

As some may know St. Peters is built on, and of, a stone known as “Roxbury Pudding Stone, “ a very dense igneous stone outcrop that is difficult and expensive to work with for construction purposes. This may have been the reason why a decision was made not to bring a water and sewer service into the building when St. Peter’s was built in 1872.

Around 1996 , It was felt that the lower hall could be made more welcoming by the work it would take to realize this goal. Without fanfare, compensation, or credit , Paul Kennedy was the prime mover on this project that has made St. Peter’s Church a continuing solid component of the Bowdoin area community.

RIP Paul!