M. Brendan Fleming

Who is M. Brendan Fleming?

Martin Brendan Fleming was the mayor of Lowell, Massachusetts, from 1982 to 1984, and a member of the Lowell City Council for nine terms between the years of 1969 and 1992.

In 1967 Fleming finished in 11th place of 18 candidates — missing a seat on the Lowell City Council by two spots, but won his first council election in 1969 with a first-place finish receiving 16,639 votes; finishing with 56.7 percent of the vote and 1331 votes more than second-place finisher Ellen Sampson.

When the Lowell city council voted to create a park in honor of Jack Kerouac, Fleming voted against naming the park after Kerouac. "I didn’t think, and I still don’t think, that this particular person would be the best example for our children," Fleming said. "And there were other people who we could have voted for, like Hoyt Vandenberg — he came from Lowell — or Bette Davis. Kerouac is not someone about whom I want to say, 'This is the type of person who comes from Lowell.'"

In January 2008, Fleming's grandson Andrew Fleming was serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.