Brian Honan

By Paul Scapicchio, Former City Councillor, District 1

I met Brian Honan while I was running for a seat on the Boston City Council in 1997. My sister-in-law, Rosemary (Curran) Scapicchio grew up near the Honans and had worked with Brian at the Allston Brighton APAC office in the early 1980s. She felt that Brian would be a terrific person to know and encouraged me to reach out to him.

We met over coffee outside of Brian’s City Hall office and his kindness, humor and good nature immediately won me over. We talked about the Boston Shootout, the Clash, the Mighty, Mighty Bostones and other memories that we shared growing up in Boston in the 1970s and 1980s. Although I grew up across the City in the North End, I felt as though I had known Brian for my entire life.

After I was elected to the City Council, I had the opportunity to work with Brian and came to rely on him for information and advice. He was my best friend on the council and a true friend outside of that body. We regularly visited New Port, Rhode Island together and even made it to Florida once or twice along with our colleague Steve Murphy. We talked about business occasionally, but mostly we enjoyed life and tried not to take it all too seriously. After all, it was friends, not position in life that was important to Brian Honan.

I miss Brian and think of him often. While he is no longer with us, his spirit and friendship remain. The City of Boston is a better place because of Brian and for that we can all be thankful.