John Moynihan, at 75; planned affordable housing for archdiocese

One day while John J. Moynihan's wife was hanging up his winter coat, she was surprised at its heft. His pockets were filled with bills and coins that jingled with the sound of charity and kindness.

"He would deliberately load up his pockets with money," said Mr. Moynihan's daughter, Denise Gagne of Medford. "As he walked down the street, whenever he passed anybody who needed something, he would give them money every day."

For some, slipping coins and dollar bills into the hands of the homeless is an act of contrition for a financially comfortable life. For Mr. Moynihan, it was just one expression of his devotion to helping others. From helping the Archdiocese of Boston build affordable housing to creating a healthcare plan for families of fishermen, "he lived his life with a tremendous sense of purpose," his daughter said.

Mr. Moynihan, who retired last year as director of policy and resource development in the Planning Office for Urban Affairs of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, died at home Sunday of cancer. He was 75 and had lived in Framingham for more than 40 years.

"John was a person who had a great sense of mission, and not in any highfalutin' terms," said Monsignor Michael Groden, who founded the Planning Office for Urban Affairs. "As a person and a Christian, he saw as his responsibility making a better world than the one he walked into."

The archdiocese built four suburban housing developments after the Legislature approved Chapter 40B, the statute that allows developers to bypass most local zoning regulations if 25 percent of the units are affordable.

"Those four developments became a great opportunity to help other communities understand that affordable housing can be done, and done well," Groden said. "John was a key part in selling that message to communities and challenging the notion that creating housing for poor people was a mistake."

Affordable housing "was something of a calling for him, really," Mr. Moynihan's daughter said. "He believed it was essential to human dignity that people know they own the roof over their heads. He felt it was necessary, not just a luxury."

For many years, Mr. Moynihan also was the link between the archdiocese and the state's fishing and lobstering communities. When Cardinal Humberto S. Medeiros decided to take up the cause, he asked Mr. Moynihan and Groden to help find permanent dock space for Boston Harbor lobstermen who were being pushed out as commercial development increased.

Medeiros, himself a Portuguese immigrant, "reminded John that many a good lobsterman was Portuguese," Groden recalled with a chuckle.

With his grasp of how to navigate the choppy waters of politics, Mr. Moynihan helped the archdiocese and the lobstermen secure state funding for Cardinal Medeiros Dock in South Boston, which Cardinal Bernard F. Law blessed and dedicated in 1996. Mr. Moynihan also helped craft the Fishing Partnership Health Plan, which began in 1997 and provides affordable health care to more than 2,000 people.

In recognition of his contributions to the fishing community, the Massachusetts Fishermen's Partnership gave him its Wheelhouse Award in June.

"John was a very brilliant man and a very modest man," said David Bergeron, executive director of the organization. "He always did things with passion and for the right reasons, with no concern about getting any attention for himself. I could not say enough good things about John."

When Law dedicated the Medeiros Dock, Bergeron recalled, a politician tried to call attention to Mr. Moynihan, who was attending the event.

"John was in the back of the crowd, and he just waved it off," Bergeron said. "That's the kind of guy he was."

Despite Mr. Moynihan's modesty, Bergeron said, "when you were with him you felt like you were with somebody who was a wise man. He always seemed to have a different answer from anybody else, and it was the right answer."

Born in Salem, Mr. Moynihan lived with his family in Danvers and Woburn before moving to Canton, where he graduated from high school. Initially drawn to the priesthood, he attended Maryknoll Seminary in Chicago before deciding to pursue a different path.

He served in the US Army for four years, three of them in Berlin, where he was a Russian translator. Returning home, he went to Boston College, graduating in 1960. Mr. Moynihan received a master's in education from Bridgewater State College in 1966 and completed some doctoral work in education at Boston University.

In 1957, Monsignor Paul Moritz introduced him to Catherine Crowley, whom Mr. Moynihan married in 1963. While growing up, Mr. Moynihan had been an altar boy for Moritz, who officiated at the couple's wedding and baptized their two daughters. Tomorrow, Moritz will be the homilist at Mr. Moynihan's funeral Mass.

At the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, Mr. Moynihan directed the consolidation of parochial schools in East Boston and for many years worked with the Justice and Peace Coalition, according to the archdiocese.

Mr. Moynihan's extensive work with housing and the fishing community was never at the expense of his family life, where he was a vital presence, his daughter said.

"He was an amazing father," she said. "He helped my mother. He was always there for everything that my sister and I did. He just really enjoyed his life. He loved being married to my mother and he loved being a father. He was one of those people who just got it right."

In addition to his wife and daughter Denise, Mr. Moynihan leaves a daughter, Kathleen of Cairo; two sisters, Barbara Moynihan of Lexington and Patricia Ward of Canton; and a granddaughter.

A funeral Mass will be said at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow in St. Cecilia Church in Boston. Burial will be in Edgell Grove Cemetery in Framingham.