John Mahoney, art teacher, community activist

Although he grew up in a large Irish family in Newton, John Mahoney found inspiration for his art in an unlikely source -- Hispanic culture.

A retired art teacher in Boston schools, Mr. Mahoney spent most of his life living in Boston's South End, where he was active in the Hispanic community and served on the boards of the South End Community Health Center and Villa Victoria .

Mr. Mahoney died of natural causes Friday at Boston Medical Center . He was 75 .

"He really believed in national, global, and cultural respect for people; and what better way to express that than through art?" said James Caradonio , superintendent of Worcester schools and a close friend who worked with Mr. Mahoney in the 1970s at Boston Technical High School.

Mr. Mahoney served in the Air Force as a cryptographer stationed in West Germany from 1950 to 1954 . After graduating from Massachusetts College of Art in 1959 , he was traveling with officials from the Cardinal Cushing Center in Boston as a lay apostolate for the Catholic Church when he met his wife, Antonia (Rodriguez) , in Jayuya, Puerto Rico.

"His interest in Latin art wasn't really sparked until after meeting my mother," said his son Brendan of Boston.

In the early 1970s , Mr. Mahoney and his wife lived in Mexico, where he studied at the Art Institute in San Miguel de Allende. When he returned to Boston, Mr. Mahoney started his teaching career in 1964 at Joseph J. Hurley School in Boston, later working at Blackstone Valley Technical High School in Upton, Boston Technical High School, and Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Roxbury, before retiring from James W. Hennigan School in Boston in 1997 . He also taught night courses at Massachusetts College of Art in the 1980s .

"He always had an interest in art, even as a child drawing everywhere he went," said his wife of 37 years. "And he always liked working with Spanish kids."

Mr. Mahoney liked to incorporate art from other cultures, Caradonio said. His curriculum usually included ceramics and pottery with Caribbean and Haitian influences, and paper mache masks inspired by those used in traditional celebrations in Puerto Rico and Mexico. He also worked in the bilingual department at Boston Technical, Caradonio said.

"He loved history, and he loved to teach history through art," his wife said.

Living in the South End, Mahoney became involved in the Cardinal Cushing Center for Spanish Speaking and served on the board of Victoria Villa, a Puerto Rican community established in the 1970s . He often worked on art projects, such as outdoor murals, with children in the villa.

"He taught a lot in the community, and saw the South End as one big classroom," Caradonio said. "In the Latin community there, they called him 'padrino,' which means godfather."

Over the years, Mr. Mahoney rallied support for South End housing projects, such as Tent City Corp. He also volunteered as a security guard at Casa Myrna Vasquez , a home for battered women.

Mr. Mahoney also worked as a freelance cartoonist; his characters with "distinctive, round faces and rosy cheeks" were published in advertisements for companies such as Dunkin' Donuts and IBM, according to his family and Caradonio.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Mahoney leaves another son, John C. of Boston; two brothers, Charles of Putnam, Conn. and R. Daniel of Sutton; and two sisters, Mary Hanlon of North Attleborough and Alice Dunne of Norwood.

A funeral Mass will be said 10 a.m. tomorrow at The Cathedral of the Holy Cross.