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Donald Falvey, who is 82, retired from his $97,000-a-year job as deputy director of the Division of Standards at the end of January. Falvey worked in state and county government for 57 years, serving as an aide to former Governor Foster J. Furcolo before moving in 1959 to the Division of Standards, which makes sure weighing and measuring devices used by businesses are accurate.
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About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
Several State House sources say Falvey did not want to retire. They said he had been coming to work for years, but did little once he was there. He was hard of hearing and didn’t use his computer. The agency’s No. 2 official handled all administrative duties. Falvey, who did not return phone calls, will receive an annual pension of $50,700.
Colman Herman, a Dorchester consumer activist, says he came away from a meeting with Falvey in December 2006 thinking the guy should retire. “Half the time he couldn’t hear me. When he could hear me, he had no sense of the question,” Herman says.
State officials said they didn’t know if Falvey was the oldest state government employee when he retired, but assumed he was one of the oldest. “You don’t run into many people who worked in the Furcolo administration. Most of them are six feet under,” says state Sen. Michael Morrissey of Quincy.
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