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A Speaker for the Times
Ronald Mariano G’72 Leads the Massachusetts House of Representatives By Robert P. Connolly ’78 A Speaker for the Times
Showing early evidence of the prodigious work ethic that fueled his rise at the State House, the young Ron Mariano is outside the gates of Quincy’s cavernous Fore River Shipyard, selling newspapers and earning a hefty $50 a week.
Fast forward to an early stage in his career and Ronald Mariano G’72, a fledgling legislative aide, feels very at home in the intensely personal culture of the Massachusetts State House.
“I fell in love with the building. You meet the best people in the world. I have made friends I will have the rest of my life,” Mariano notes.
Time passes and the onetime aide becomes a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives—and his work ethic and network of relationships make him the perfect choice to be the House point person as state government takes on a true life-or-death issue.
The question is whether Massachusetts, known as the health care capital of the world, can provide its citizens with decent health insurance coverage.
Few disagree with the goal—but getting there is another matter.
“There were so many moving parts, so many moving pieces. You had doctors, you had hospitals, and you had insurance companies. Getting everybody moving in the same direction was a real challenge, and I loved it,” Mariano recalls.
When it was done, Mariano “felt a real sense of accomplishment, a sense of purpose.”
The epic accomplishment was passing the state’s landmark health care coverage bill of 2006—a law that served as a model for 2010’s Affordable Care Act. Today Massachusetts is the nation’s leader in health care coverage, with only 3 percent of its population uninsured, well below the national average of 9.2 percent.
(Above) Ronald Mariano G’72 addresses his colleagues in the State House Chamber after they voted him the new speaker of the house on Dec. 30, 2020. (Photo by Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
(Previous page) Photo taken by Janina Seibel
Mariano’s work on the massive project marked him for bigger things. The UMass Boston lawmaker was promoted to assistant majority leader in 2009 and became majority leader in 2011.
Last year the former paperboy and son of a Quincy shipyard worker was elected speaker of the Massachusetts House—the first Quincy resident to hold the position since John Hancock. Yes, the John Hancock with the eye-catching signature on the Declaration of Independence.
When he was elected to the powerful and prestigious position, Mariano, a self-described “worker bee,” said the significance was not lost on him.
“I was born and raised by the shipyards of Quincy, where my father earned his living after his father left Italy with his sights set on the American dream,” he noted. “When I first took the oath of office, I did so on their shoulders.”
At the time of his election, CommonWealth magazine said the new speaker had “helped negotiate almost all of the thorniest policy compromises that have come out of the Legislature in recent years. He has particular expertise in health care and insurance policy but has also worked on major pieces of legislation in other areas, including education, criminal justice reform, and gun laws.” It’s a picture-perfect late-summer day, and Mariano, who had his own brief stint as a shipyard worker, is on a small ferry, bringing 24 members of the House out for a close inspection of the 600-foot-tall turbines that drive the Block Island Wind Farm.
Standing at the stern and keeping an impressive grasp on his balance as a steady chop rocks the boat, Mariano offers a brief tutorial on wind energy and its history in Massachusetts.
The former Quincy schoolteacher is not a newcomer to the issue. Clean energy and climate change have been at the top of his agenda for many years, and a 2015 fact-finding trip to Denmark deepened his belief in wind energy.
Sketching out his priorities in a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce speech earlier this year, Mariano said: “We must … make Massachusetts the leader of our clean energy future.”
Other priorities include helping to lead Massachusetts through the COVID-19 pandemic and positioning the state for economic recovery, ensuring access to health care with a focus on protecting community hospitals, and addressing the social and economic divides he says the pandemic has made even more evident.
“The great divide between rich and poor, black and white, rural and urban has been made all too obvious,” Mariano said after winning the speakership. “The disproportionate suffering of communities of color in particular has exposed the frailty of our safety net and the inequality that has been hiding in plain sight.”
(Below) Photo taken by Janina Seibel
Lighting a path to the future comes naturally to the former teacher. With his master’s in education degree in hand, Mariano taught in Quincy for 12 years. (Mariano earned his degree at Boston State College, which joined UMass Boston in 1982.)
Mariano, who describes himself as a UMass Boston graduate, says the university is an important institution because it provides students with a distinguished faculty and is “a place where you get to experience life.” UMass Boston has remained important to the House speaker in part because of its status as a higher-education beacon for so many of his South Shore constituents.
Though no longer in the classroom, many would say that Mariano has never stopped teaching—and learning.
Rep. Michael J. Moran ’96, who was elected to the House in 2005 and now holds a top leadership position as assistant majority leader, said that Mariano’s rise to the speakership was fueled by his instinctive willingness to mentor and help colleagues navigate the complexities of life on Beacon Hill.
“Ronnie was the guy who always had a lot of time to give,” the Brighton lawmaker and UMass Boston economics major noted. “He has mentored a lot of members for years.”
Mariano’s command of the issues and ability to find consensus make him “the perfect speaker at the right time,” Moran added.
Having its graduates serve in the Massachusetts legislature and in other public positions has become a tradition for Boston’s public research university.
UMass Boston alumni currently serve in the Massachusetts House and Senate, following in the footsteps of the many who made the trek from Columbia Point to Beacon Hill. This list includes current House Speaker Ronald Mariano G’72 and two former presidents of the Massachusetts Senate: Therese Murray ’84 and Robert Travaglini ’74.
Social activist and former State Representative Mel King ’52, H’14 and Steven Tolman ’00, a former state representative and state senator who now serves as president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, are among the UMass Boston graduates known for their distinguished legislative careers.
Beyond Beacon Hill, alumna Janet Mills ’70 is the first woman to be attorney general and governor of Maine. The late Thomas M. Menino ’88, mayor of Boston for a record 20 years, earned a degree on Columbia Point, as did White House national climate advisor, Gina McCarthy ’76, former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly ’76, and former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II ’76, H’09.
House Assistant Majority Leader Michael Moran ’96 says two factors helped to build the public-service wave: UMass Boston’s attracting students who understand that government can change lives and who augment this recognition with “a strong work ethic.” Students who fit this profile become graduates who succeed in the public sector, the Brighton lawmaker noted.
Joyce Linehan ’96, G’04, who served as chief of policy for Mayor Martin J. Walsh, credited the faculty with playing a major role. “The faculty understands what it is to serve with a commitment to public education, and that inspires students to work toward a better commonwealth. It’s no wonder that such a large number of people who study there go into public service.”
Jeffrey Sánchez ’06, the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee who worked with Speaker Mariano on issues including the 2006 health care bill, said it’s because “community is in the school’s DNA.”
It’s clear that the founding vision of an urban public research university that works to create a better world endures today.
“The University of Massachusetts Boston will endeavor to be the university of and for the city, and the university of and for the times,” notes Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco.
“UMass Boston was created to lead the way to a better future,” said UMass President Marty Meehan. “Given its ethos, it makes perfect sense that its graduates would imagine a better world and say, ‘Why not?’”
“It has a special mission,” Mariano agreed, “And I think it stayed true to its mission. There’s something going on there that is unique.”
