By Bill Forry

Someday soon, probably this Dorchester Day, there'll be an official moment to remember Sam Sawtelle, to dedicate a street corner or a slice of open space to the man from Wenlock Street, who died after a year-long battle with lung cancer last weekend. But, none of us really have to wait that long. Monuments to Sam's life dot the landscape of his hometown. Whether he built them by hand, nurtured them to health or just "planted the seed" of an idea, Sawtelle's legacy is visible everywhere you go. The oldest son of seven born to a Sicilian barber and an Irish mother, Sam and his siblings roughed it through the Depression years in Codman Square. A plumber by trade, Sawtelle built Navy ships on the drydocks of Charlestown during the Second World War before launching a 34-year career as a building inspector for the City of Boston.

Sam's workload never ended when he punched the clock, though. He toiled endlessly for Dorchester in his spare time, a super-citizen who founded or belonged to just about every group and organization there was in the neighborhood between the 1950s and 1980s. In 1947, he helped to revive the Cedar Grove Civic Association, led the group for a number of years and remains, to this day, President Emeritus. He also helped establish the now-defunct Dorchester United Neighborhood Association, an umbrella group that met to promote neighborhood wide issues.

At various times, he directed the Board of Trade, honchoed the Dorchester Day Parade, commanded the Dorchester Allied Veterans Council, and served on the Board of Directors of Carney Hospital. A union man, Sam served as president of the Boston Building Inspectors Association, and the AFL-CIO local 703 A.F.S.C.M.E.

Sawtelle's no-nonsense, blue-collar roots trumped his many titles and accomplishments. Friends remember that Sam was most at ease when his sleeves were rolled up.

"What was most impressive about Sam," recalls neighbor Ray Donahoe, "was that you knew he was one of the movers in the neighborhood, but you'd always find him in the kitchen at a function, doing the pots and pans. He didn't need to be 'numero uno.' He was about doing the small things. He wasn't above selling the tickets at the Bingo."

Indeed, as Donahoe and fellow civic activist Loretta Philbrick recall, it was Sam who would lead a team of strong-backs each week to lug dozens of folding tables to St. Brendan's lower hall for Bingo Night and then haul them back to their rightful place at the McKeon Post or Keystone Apartments. It didn't matter that it was Sawtelle who engineered the construction of both the church hall and the revitalization of Keystone in the late '70s.

"He was behind the scenes in everything, but he didn't want the recognition," says Philbrick. "He was a visionary, but he and his wife Ruth wanted a low-key lifestyle."

One exception was the community room at the senior residences at Keystone, which has borne his name since the complex opened. Sawtelle had the vision for Keystone when it was still an abandoned camera factory and brought together the various politicians and developers who made the re-development happen.

Sawtelle was also in the vanguard of the grassroots push to bring the JFK Library to Dorchester, chairing the committee that successfully lobbied the Kennedy family in 1978. And, he helped UMass-Boston immeasurably in its early days in Dorchester, succeeding fellow civic pioneer Kit Clark as a member of the university's board of trustees.

Sam also came to the aid of Carney Hospital on more than one occasion. Philbrick, in an article for the St. Brendan's Grapevine last year, recalled that Sawtelle helped the Carney get its drafty windows replaced in the 1980s by brokering a meeting with former Congressman Brian Donnelly, who lined up a federal grant for the Sisters of Charity.

Sawtelle had a friendly style, Donahue remembers, that aided him in his endeavors.

"He could be argumentative, but never offensively so. His big thing was always, 'This is what the neighborhood wants.' He wouldn't necessarily push his own position, he would push the position of the abutters," says Donahue.

In his later years, Sawtelle turned his full attention to a Dorchester treasure that preceded his arrival by a full century: Cedar Grove Cemetery. For 17 years, Sawtelle served as treasurer and secretary of this neighborhood jewel, which aside from its obvious purpose, remains home to what many of us think is perhaps the city's most spectacular reservation of native trees. Sawtelle oversaw the expansion and beautification of the cemetery.

"When he retired, he was asked if he'd be interested (in the cemetery), and at first he wasn't so sure," remembers Sam's daughter, Martha Scheffer. "I think he realized that so much of the final days of our journey culminate at Cedar Grove. It was his way of helping people in the community."

Appropriately, Sam's own journey ended there this morning, where he joined his beloved wife in rest near the Neponset. At his funeral at St. Brendan's, Martha planned to read excerpts from the definition of a 'Good Citizen' that she found in a handbook.

"A worker - doing his full share in the work of his community, prompt and active in his cooperation with his fellows."

Sam Sawtelle, it can be said, was all of those things. And then some.

Contributions may be made in memory of Sam to the St. Brendan's Building Fund, 15 Rita Rd., Dorchester, MA 02124. Arrangements handled by the O'Connor & Son Funeral Home.