Ken Donnelly was born in Cambridge in 1950 to Al Donnelly and Enes Leccacorvi, the third of six boys. Ken attended St Peter’s Parochial School in Cambridge until his family moved to Arlington in 1963. As a child, he played Little League baseball and Pee Wee hockey.  He attended Arlington High School were he was active in football, hockey and baseball.

After graduating High School, Ken paid his way through school to become an air conditioning and refrigeration mechanic.  He married his wife Judy Sirois in 1970 at the age of 20 and purchased their home in 1975. It was while working as a mechanic with poor wages and poor working conditions that Ken first began to exhibit his leadership for standing up for social and economic justice.

In 1972, Ken became the only son to follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming a firefighter for the Town of Lexington.  After serving the community for 35 years, Ken retired in 2007.  During his career, he learned many of the skills he has used his entire life: compassion to help those who need assistance, regardless of their background, income, or situation; how to make decisions under extreme pressure and time constraints; the ability to work with a team to accomplish common goals and leadership to make difficult decisions.

In addition to his leadership and supervisory duties as a lieutenant on the fire department, Ken has served in many leadership roles. For seven years Ken served as the Legislative agent for the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts. During this time, he learned the workings of Beacon Hill; from writing legislation and testifying before Legislative Committees to working collaboratively with diverse coalitions to help ensure the passage of legislation.  Ken played an instrumental role in the crafting and passing of the landmark 1987 Pension Reform Bill. It is because of Ken’s leadership and ability to build coalitions that future generations will not be burdened with a huge unfunded liability.

Ken became recognized as an expert in the realm of health insurance and pension issues. In recognition of his expertise, Ken was appointed by the State Auditor to be one of seven commissioners responsible for oversight of over 60 billion dollars in assets in 106 retirement systems with over 400,000 active and retired members.

In 1993, Ken became the Chief Financial Officer for the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts. His duties include: preparing and managing a 1.5 million dollar budget, managing the payroll system, overseeing the operations of a staffed office and coordinating the production of conferences and conventions for thousands of attendees. Ken has honed his managerial skills and fiscal discipline over the past 19 years. Ken holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts and is a graduate of the Harvard University Trade Union Program, which he attended on a highly competitive and prestigious scholarship.

Ken has been active in the state political arena for almost 30 years.  Ken has used his skills and leadership in fights important to the Democratic Party- in whatever capacity and venue needed hm most.

Ken describes one of the happiest days in his life as the birth of his son Ryan and equally shared with the births of Keith and Brenna.  Even though Ken had incredible work demands, he always made time to enjoy and take an active part in his children’s lives. He has many fond memories of his kids growing up in Arlington, including his seven years of coaching Arlington Youth Hockey. Nothing is more important to Ken than family. Besides enjoying time with his 4 grandchildren, Ken has a passion for the outdoors.

At the age of 53, Ken spent five months training for the Boston Marathon. He raised thousands of dollars to help build the Fallen Fire Fighters of Massachusetts Memorial at the State House by running and finishing the Boston Marathon in 2003. But Ken’s favorite hobby by far is hiking. In 2006, Ken finished his quest of several years to hike all 48 of the 4,000 foot mountains in New Hampshire.  He has hiked many of them with his children and can’t wait to share his passion for the outdoors and hiking with his grandchildren.

Ken has never been afraid of a challenge, either personal or professional, and feels he has a great breadth of experience to draw upon to serve the people of the 4th Middlesex District. He is equally looking forward to adding to his knowledge and experience while working on behalf of the issues and concerns that are important to the District.