APPRECIATION: ‘Butch’ Gennetti, at 86; he was a living bridge who connected Malden’s past with its present

He never stopped being a cop; always a family man, friend, mentor, volunteer and Malden community leader

By Steve Freker

If there was ever was a television show called “Only in Malden,” where they asked and answered questions about our community, what would be the top answer to this one? “Name one person you would most likely see in the community on any given day, walking or driving around the city of Malden?” Top answer in any decade going back to at least the 1970s? That’s easy: Salvatore “Butch” Gennetti.

Butch was not just a fixture in Malden going back, well, to 1955, when he graduated from Malden High School. Most likely beyond that in the neighborhood of Edgeworth, where he grew up – he has been the fixture. He is the veritable glue that holds about four generations together – he was a living bridge that connected so much about what Malden means from the past to the present.

Now he has left us, passing away on Friday surrounded by family and friends, at 86.

“Butch” Gennetti was like many of those who were at retirement age or close to it, contemplating the fast-approaching period of their lives where they did not have to wake up and face another day on the job. “What do I do now?” That is what many say when the work-free life draws near.

For Butch, it was an easy call. A cop for nearly 40 years with the Malden Police Department before his retirement from active duty, a cop he remained, accepting then Mayor Richard Howard’s appointment as Malden Police Commissioner in 2010 and continuing in that post, reporting to Mayor Gary Christenson from 2012 until his sad passing this past Friday, June 28.

By the way, Butch was 86 years young on the day he left us. But yes, he was still a Malden cop, actually the city’s “top cop” as Police Commissioner.

Do you think Butch took that post seriously? Did he consider it an important responsibility in his life?

“I do not think [Gennetti] missed a single weekly meeting I held with Police Chief [Glenn] Cronin or Chief [Kevin] Molis before him in the 13 years I’ve served as Mayor,” Malden Mayor Gary Christenson recalled Saturday afternoon while taking in a Malden Youth Baseball championship game at Devir Park’s Bruce Field.

“He [Gennetti] was at this week’s meeting on Tuesday, just a few days before he passed,” Mayor Christenson shared. “He really was that passionate and committed to the men and women of the Malden Police Department and our community, right up to his final days.”

Along with being “A cop for life in Malden,” Butch also was forever a family man, friend, mentor, volunteer and Malden community leader.

Another rite of passage from being in the working world and then on to retirement is the so-called “Bucket List,” a compiled “to-do list” of all that someone wants to experience and a task to complete before meeting their Maker. People that knew Butch Gennetti the best probably would concur on this one: Butch didn’t even have a “Bucket List.” Why not? Because was living all of the stuff he would write on said list, every day! He loved being a Malden cop so much that he never stopped being a cop, even to age 86!

Butch belonged to many of the most influential member clubs and private organizations in Malden – the Italian American Citizens Club (IACC) the Irish American Club, the ITAMVETS (Italian American War Veterans), Malden Kiwanis, past President of the Brittolesi Mutual Aid Society and past president and one of the those there from the start of the St. Rocco Society – and as a member of the governing body that ran most of them. In recent years he even started another new organization, Club Italia, which operated with a club building and small function hall on Maplewood Street on Malden’s East Side.

He loved sports and stayed active in the ones he loved the most for most of his life – slow-pitch softball, golf and bocce. Butch helped start the popular Over-40 Men’s Softball League, which rolled it out for decades at Callahan Park on Pearl Street on weeknights, and weekends at the former slow-pitch softball fields at Pine Banks. He was one of the founders of the bocce sport at the IACC, which has become all the rage in Malden, a lifelong sport in which guys and gals, well, even in their mid-80s can still participate.

Politics? Butch could talk politics at every level – local, state, national, international – from past and present, about what happened in the past hour! – with anyone that cared to partake. He ran and won a seat on the Malden School Committee – four times, serving as chairman twice, and could probably have been a City Councillor for life if he had found the time, like his dear friend Paul Condon. He even ran for Mayor of Malden once back in the day!

He had a large and loving family. Butch was the youngest of 10 children of first-generation Italian immigrants. Butch had five children of his own, with his former wife “Peggy”: daughters Lisa, Dina, Carla and Maria along with his son and namesake, Sal. Sal, a Malden High grad like Class of ’55 Butch, followed his dad’s footsteps and is now a Malden PD veteran who was decorated for valor a few years back for saving lives at a fire scene.

Butch loved Malden and Malden loved him. He was most assuredly one of the record-holders in city history at returning waves from passing motorists and acknowledging the friendly horn beeps while he was on one of his thousands of fitness walks on different routes of extended lengths all over the community. Butch was a pillar of life wherever he was involved in his community in many ways, and it is not enough to say he will be missed, not enough to say he was someone who could not be replaced.

Salvatore “Butch” Gennetti is just someone we were so lucky to have in our community for what it is now the ninth decade. His life started in Malden, stayed in Malden and finished in Malden and we are all the better for it.

Rest in peace, Butch. We are blessed to be able to say we were all part of Malden together with you.