John P. Dunn, the city’s chief financial officer for the past decade, died Monday, March 4, at age 71.
Dunn served with three Gloucester mayors while also having overseen municipal finances in Beverly as The Garden’s City’s finance director for 18 years.
Former Mayor Carolyn Kirk tapped Dunn to the job formerly held by Jeff Towne when he accepted a position in Natick, according a Jan. 3, 2014 article in the Times.
At the time of his hiring, Kirk said Dunn came highly recommended by outgoing Beverly Mayor Bill Scanlon with now Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill bringing in his own team during the transition, freeing up Dunn to take the job in Gloucester.
“He was by far and away the best candidate,” Kirk said at the time.
On Thursday, Kirk said “John was a seasoned and savvy municipal CFO under three mayors here in Gloucester. Every day he carried out his role as steward of the public trust to the highest standards and with a calm demeanor.
“We’ve been lucky to have his talents devoted to the citizens of Gloucester over the past 10 years and my sincere condolences are extended to his family and his colleagues at City Hall.”
Dunn served the longest with former Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, who was mayor for seven years from 2015 until 2021. She called Dunn “a great friend” and that he “would be sadly missed.”
“He was a great CFO,” Theken said, saying Dunn “worked closely with my administration with Jim Destino, the CAO, and Kenny Costa, the auditor.
“Those three were powerhouses who started to move Gloucester forward. They worked great together to make sure that our departments and the schools always had funding that was needed for the city to survive.”
Dunn worked well with and respected others, Theken said.
“He had a dry sense of humor, but it was great,” she said.
He worked steadily through the COVID-19 pandemic with Thekan’s staff “and I came in during COVID to make sure that no one was left alone in City Hall.”
Mayor Greg Verga said of Dunn, “First of all, he was just a great guy. He was really funny in just his own way. He was one of those guys who looked serious, a numbers guy, but he was a funny guy.”
Verga said when he came in as mayor, Dunn was helpful in boiling down the budget for him: “Budget 101 for me.” Even though Verga served on the City Council for six years, it was just a whole different story, he said, going through the budget line-by-line.
“And he was a magician, you know,” Verga said, when it came to Dunn being able to arrange the financing for city projects.
“He just knew how to set up all the dominoes so they just stayed perfectly,” he said.
Dunn’s death is a big loss for the city as one of the key people he worked with, “but I think it’s a bigger loss because of him as a person,” Verga said.
Chief Administrative Officer Jill Cahill, who served with Dunn in city government for seven years as the former director of community development and in her present role, said: “He taught me so much. John taught me a lot about municipal government, about municipal finance. He was a mentor and he was always there for everybody. His answer was always: ‘Don’t worry about it, we’ll get it done. I’ll find the money.”
As to the city’s finances, as Dunn also served as the city’s treasurer and collector, Cahill said they are in good hands with the assistant treasurer and a consultant who the city has hired who is a seasoned CFO.
Dunn was a native of New Providence, New Jersey, and the husband of Pat McCullough Dunn for 45 years. He lived in New Jersey until he came to Massachusetts to attend Tufts University, according to his obituary for the Campbell-Porter Funeral Home in Ipswich.
Dunn and his wife settled in Beverly, where he worked for 18 years as the chief financial officer. He was proud of his efforts to modernize and improve Beverly schools and other capital projects there, his obituary reads.
“Terrific guy,” said Scanlon, Beverly’s longest-serving mayor. “Extremely capable. Honest as you can be. Low-key. Well-liked, just a great guy.”
Scanlon plans to give a eulogy at Dunn’s funeral next week, on March 13.
He said Dunn, who had been a bank executive, first began working in Beverly in the treasurer’s office before becoming Beverly’s finance director in the mid 1990s.
Scanlon, who was mayor in Beverly from 1994 to 2001 and then again from 2004 to 2013, said when he lost a bid for reelection during his first go as mayor, Dunn went to work in Melrose, and when Scanlon was reelected, Dunn came back. When Scanlon decided to retire in 2013, Scanlon spoke to Kirk about Dunn.
“I told him he would be available and she hired him in a minute,” Scanlon said.
In addition to his wife, Dunn is survived by his daughter, Abby Carmean and her husband Chris of Greenwood, Delaware, and son Andrew and his partner, Justine of Nashua, New Hampshire and grandsons Owen, Riley and Quinn, who his obituary indicates Dunn cherished as they called him, ‘Papa John.’
A funeral service will be held at the Campbell Funeral Home, 525 Cabot St., Beverly, on Wednesday, March 13, at 1 p.m. Relatives and friends are invited to attend. Visiting hours at the funeral home will be Tuesday, March 12, from 4-7 p.m. Contributions may be made in Dunn’s memory to the American Red Cross at www.redcross.org. Information, directions, condolences at www.campbellfuneral.com.
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@gloucestertimes.com.