Dermot P. Shea, a pioneer in consumer legislation, died Sunday, Aug. 15 in Mystic, Connecticut.
Born Sept. 3, 1916, in Chicopee, Mass., he was the son of the late Dr. Michael I. Shea, former mayor of Chicopee, and Madeleine (Mahony) Shea. He graduated from Chicopee High School, University of Ottawa and Boston College Law School (class of 1939). During World War II, he was an Ensign in the United States Maritime Service. Prior to his enlistment, he was with the Office of War Information.
His early career in Washington, D.C., was interrupted when his brother-in-law Dr. Raymond Blais of Granby, Mass., died in the early 1950s. Shea moved to Granby to help his sister Maureen (Shea) Blais raise her six young children. In 1962, Shea was possibly the first Democrat elected Granby town moderator and definitely the first, according to the blog Granby 01033, to establish “a town meeting tradition in which free speech lived up to its name.”
In 1964, Governor Endicott Peabody named Shea executive secretary for the new Massachusetts Consumer Council, a post he held for eight years. “From that obscure perch, Shea helped launch an era of consumer protection laws that today are taken for granted,” wrote David Nyhan in The Boston Globe in 2000. “He is one of the warriors of the political game in Massachusetts, an irascible old codger who was a firebrand in his youth, and learned how to make a contribution by learning how to make a deal.”
Among the landmark legislation Shea authored for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that served as models for federal legislation were Truth-in-Lending and Unit Pricing for grocery stores.
In 2001, he was given the Esther Peterson Consumer Service award from the Consumer Federation of America. Sen. Ted Kennedy was quoted, “I do not know of anyone who has fought harder and worked longer on behalf of the consumer.”
He lived in Boston for more than 40 years, on Boylston Street, within cheering distance of Fenway Park. He was a member of Ward 5, Boston Democratic Committee. He was an astute observer of politics and history. His political influences included FDR and James Michael Curley. He worked to establish the JFK statue in Boston. During the mid-seventies, Shea, a great lover of opera, was lured onto the Boston Concert Opera Company Board of Directors and was ultimately responsible for getting Massachusetts to name one day of the year "The Boston Concert Opera Day."
His brother Kevin Shea, sister Maureen Blais and nephew Raymond Blais predeceased him. He leaves his sister Eileen Walsh, her husband Joseph and their son Stephen of Falls Church, Va. He leaves nieces Madeleine Blais of Amherst, Mass.; Jacqueline Blais, Christina Rodgers, Maureen Klein, all of Noank, Ct.; nephew Michael Blais of Madison, Ct. He also leaves a grandniece, five grandnephews and many friends.
Funeral arrangements will be private for the family.
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