English
Spanish
Portuguese
Arabic
Haitian Creole
Chinese (Traditional)
By Steve Freker
Some people use this comment the other way, usually as a zing, not a compliment. “Yeah, he (or she) has all the answers.”
The ranks of prominent Maldonians lost a giant recently, with the passing of Domenic “Dom” Fermano on May 21, at the age of 86.
Regarding the statement above, there are few (any?) of our community’s citizenry still walking the streets of Malden for whom those words aptly fit. You see, Dom Fermano absolutely had all the answers! To what questions? How about… ALL of them.
To list it all would take up most of the rest of this informal treatise on a true Malden icon and son of Edgeworth. Want to know about Malden history? Just ask Dom.
More specifically, Malden political history? Just ask Dom. He lived it. He was the pillar in a family of politicians, though he would have most likely been loath to refer to himself as “a politician.” That is true even though he did indeed serve valuable years as an elected official representing Malden residents with pride, passion and vigor for key stretches of years in our city’s past.
How many would-be political hopefuls in Malden probably either sought Dom Fermano’s advice, counsel or even his blessing to launch a fledgling campaign for most any public office here. It would be a perfectly safe bet to say this: most. Just ask Dom. Most who knew what they were doing or even thought they knew the same would seek him out. Why not? Dom had all the answers, everyone in Malden knew that.
He would probably have allowed himself to be referred to as a public servant. Dom Fermano did that, too. As the longtime Malden City Controller, Dom worked into his 70s and beyond monitoring the city’s finances. It was an easy and valuable transition to voting on city issues as a former local elected official to being employed in the inner workings of the city’s financial engine.
Had a question on municipal money, how it comes in, is spent or how it is kept and safeguarded? Just ask Dom, for any of that… for all of that. Dom knew and Dom would share that information, for the good of the community and for the greater good, period.
Need a primer on local sports history, Malden High sports lore? Yup. Ask Dom. He knew details, names and results, statistics, scores and highlights: from the proverbial “way back” into the 1940s when he was “coming up” through the late 1950s when he was arguably the best athlete of the bunch for the Golden Tornados of Malden High.
In this decade of the 2020s, remarkably, Dom was into his 8th decade of interest in Malden High sports teams and players. Though he may not have gotten out to as many games as he wished in recent years, it was not long ago when he was a regular at the annual “Burning of the Cleat” ceremonies at Macdonald Stadium, where a player or coach from the past addresses that year’s Malden High football team on the expectations and vagaries of the annual Malden-Medford Thanksgiving Day game.
I remember in one or the recent years’ stories I published in this newspaper about a Malden win over Medford — it was in 2019, I believe. I was actually the coach of the Golden Tornado team at the time and we were defending turf against a rallying Medford team, but more than holding our own. For some reason I looked just past the end zone, and there I saw Dom Fermano, the two-time Greater Boston League championship-winning star of back-to-back Turkey Day wins in 1957 and 1958, shifting his feet and bobbing almost like a boxer circling his prey as the Malden defense repelled the Mustang offender.
If he had been a little closer and in earshot, I would have considered doing what everyone else in Malden has done for the past 50-60 years when Dom Fermano’s light has been on “in his office” — “What do you think, Dom? Got any suggestions here?”
Blessings to Dom’s family and closest friends, of whom he had multitudes. But the loss— for all of us— is simply epic. No more questions will be fielded by one of the most knowledgeable and wisest gentlemen to ever grace our community. We will have no more answers, ever.
All that remains with Dom Fermano’s passing are the memories. For that, we are grateful. Rest in peace, Dom. You will never be replaced, nor forgotten.
