Former Mayor Paul Fitzgerald dies, kept the Weirs in the city

LACONIA — Paul Fitzgerald, longtime attorney and two-term mayor of Laconia, has died.

Fitzgerald died Feb. 5. He was 75 years old.  

At a city council meeting Monday night, Mayor Mike Bordes recognized Fitzgerald’s service to the city. 

“Former Mayor Paul Fitzgerald had passed away, he did two terms as mayor in the City of Laconia," from 1992 to 1996, Bordes said. “I would appreciate if we could do a brief moment of silence for him.”

Fitzgerald was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on April 27, 1950, and raised in Laconia from the age of 2. He attended what was then called St. John’s School — it’s better known as Holy Trinity School today — and Laconia High School, before enrolling at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont, and was a member of the first graduating class of Franklin Pierce Law Center, now part of the University of New Hampshire. 

He returned to Laconia after passing the bar, and opened his own practice, along with a former classmate. He served the Lakes Region for nearly 50 years. 

Fitzgerald served as mayor for two terms, 1992-96, and also served as chair of the Laconia Police Commission. 

Another former mayor, Matt Lahey, who served with Fitzgerald during his first term on the city council in 1992 and for years thereafter, remembers him as competent, talented and effective, and as a friend. Lahey served as mayor from 1996 to 2002, and again from 2006 to 2010.

“I came in with Paul,” Lahey said on Wednesday morning. “That was my first time on the city council, and his first time as mayor.”

Fitzgerald spent his career working in municipal law, so he “hit the ground running, there was no learning curve”, Lahey said.

“He was very good at it, very funny.”

Lahey went to law school with Fitzgerald’s brother, Ed, and played basketball with Paul’s younger brother, Mike. Fitzgerald’s mother, Betsye, was Lahey’s teacher in school. 

During Lahey’s time on the council, under the leadership of Fitzgerald as mayor, the council dealt with several major issues. Arguably the most impactful was a dispute over what some locals describe as the “secession” of the Weirs from the City of Laconia.

Lahey described that effort as a “serious movement” the city had to combat locally and in Concord. For Fitzgerald, there was the revenue side of the question — the Weirs is economically significant — plus the historic piece, keeping Laconia Motorcycle Week and the general identity of the city in mind.  

“It’s part of Laconia’s heritage, really,” Lahey said. “It was important to keep it.” 

“Paul really took the lead on that.”

After 1996, neither Lahey nor Fitzgerald planned to run again for office. One night, Lahey and his wife Chris were in their home, and their kitchen phone rang. It was Fitzgerald on the line. 

“Paul called and he said, ‘We can’t get anybody to run for mayor and we think you should,’” Lahey said. And run he did, serving for six years. “That was Paul.” 

Fitzgerald’s obituary refers to a “twinkle in his eye”, and Lahey said one memory is top-of-mind in that regard. During his time as mayor, at some point, police shot and killed a bear on the grounds of the Laconia Public Library. That same week, city leaders were navigating the budget process, and the Laconia Police Commission was due to make a presentation.

Fitzgerald apparently called the police commission up to speak, and they came prepared with binders full of material, statistics and the like. Fitzgerald quipped that “it looks like they’re loaded for bear.”

“He just broke the room up,” Lahey said, noting the police at the time had taken “a lot of flak” for the bear incident. 

Fitzgerald also had a keen interest and passion for the White Mountains, and served as secretary and president of the board of trustees of the Mount Washington Observatory. According to his obituary, Fitzgerald was scheduled to receive the Observatory’s Founders Award the day after his passing — the award will be bestowed posthumously.

There were many sides to Fitzgerald — the attorney and consummate mountain man was also a passionate motorcyclist, and enjoyed riding through the Lakes Region astride a Harley-Davidson together with his wife, Cheryl, and had a hand in transforming Laconia Motorcycle Week into the major attraction it is today.

Charlie St. Clair, executive director of Laconia Motorcycle Week and also a former mayor, said Wednesday he grew up with Fitzgerald, and remembers him fondly. He played a part in transforming the famed event into what it is today. 

In 1992, St. Clair and others got Fitzgerald out to another major motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, and they set about revitalizing Laconia’s event to the days of 1965.

“He was a really big help with that,” St. Clair said. 

St. Clair remembers Fitzgerald as professional, competent, thoughtful and funny. He described Fitzgerald’s passing as a “big loss” for the City of Laconia.

“Paul would move really slow, 'cause he was thinking, always thinking,” St. Clair said. “He loved this city.” 

“He was a really good guy, he was a motorcyclist for a long time.”

Allison Ambrose, of Wescott Law, where Fitzgerald spent much of his career professionally, said he was a dedicated attorney.

“Wescott Law extends its heartfelt condolences to Paul Fitzgerald’s family. He spent many years with the firm, and we are grateful for his long service and his dedication to clients and colleagues throughout his career,” Ambrose wrote Wednesday morning. “He was a familiar presence in the Lakes Region legal community, and we recognize the many relationships he built over the years. Our thoughts are with his wife and family during this difficult time.”