Last modified: Monday, November 9, 2009 12:28 AM EST

Theodore Regnante
Lynn’s Regnante to celebrate 100th birthday

By Laura Paine/For The Item

LYNN - Theodore Regnante moved to the United States in 1910 from Italy when he was only a
year old. Ninety-nine years later, the former lawyer remains in good spirits and great health as he
celebrates his 100th birthday Wednesday.

“It is in the genes for us,” said Regnante of his own age and the age of his three siblings, who
were all still living in their 90s until the death of his sister, age 98, on Oct. 26. His mother lived to
the age of 92, and his grandfather, who remained in Italy, lived to be 102. “I don’t think that is
the complete story. Diet has a lot to do with it. The southern European diet contributes to
longevity.”

Regnante grew up in Lynn and graduated from Lynn Classical High School. He wanted to become
an engineer, but soon found himself studying law.

“I had applied at MIT and I was accepted but I had no money because my father died when I was
about 11 years old. I worked days to help out my mother because aid was very sparse in those
days and I went to law school nights,” Regnante said. “I developed an interest in that. I felt as a
lawyer I could help people that needed help, particularly legally, so that inspired me to become a
lawyer.”

He graduated with honors from Northeastern University’s law school in 1931. At age 22 he was
one of the youngest people to receive a law degree and was admitted to the Bar in November of
that year by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

“I had a thirst for knowledge in those days and I had drive. I think that helped more than
anything else, was the drive. I read a lot about Lincoln and another thing that influenced me in
the legal profession was the fact that he started out with a very limited education,” said Regnante,
who opened his own law practice in 1931. His son Theodore C. Regnante took over Regnante,
Sterio & Osborne LLP, which is located in Wakefield. “With the odds that there was in acquiring an
education, (Abraham Lincoln) did it on his own and was able to become president of the United
States as a result of it, and so he became my mentor. I followed his life and his activity and his
thinking throughout. I was a great admirer of his.”

Although he attended law school, Regnante did not receive a liberal arts education but found that
he was able to educate himself by reading for 15 minutes a day from a set of 50 books that
covered various subjects and authors.

“I got a bird’s-eye view of the college education,” Regnante said. “The most important lesson that
I’ve learned in life that I should pass on to the next generation is that education should be
uppermost in their mind, but in addition to education, they should make a focus on exactly the
best field they can go into, so that they can be of assistance to humanity itself.”

Regnante worked in the public sector in many different roles. He was appointed by president
Harry S. Truman to serve on the Board of Registration for the Draft as the Government Appeal
Agent, was the secretary on the Board of Trustees of the Union Hospital, Public Administrator of
the Commonwealth, and he was appointed to the Commonwealth Commission of Council Against
Discrimination.
“We attempted to obtain legislation that would prevent discrimination against persons of sex,
nationality, race, etc. (It was of interest) especially where I was of Italian extraction,” said
Regnante of working on the Commonwealth Commission of Council Against Discrimination. He
said he faced bigotry while running for councilman of Ward 3 in the 1950s.

“An Irishman by the name of Geeney was my opposition in the final election. Near the end of the
campaign the slogan read ‘Geeney vs. the Guinea.’ Though I had more qualifications, Geeney
played up his veteran’s status and won the election,” Regnante said. He denied Geeney’s request
that he run in the election the following year.

As a child, Regnante spent much of his time at the Lynn Public Library reading from the Book of
Knowledge, which gave him his first taste of Lincoln’s life and where he continued to educate
himself.

“I’d spent a lot of time in the library and that is one reason I became interested in serving on the
board of trustees because I felt that the library helped me so much and that I should do
something to continue on that type of work for the benefit to those who would be able to help
themselves,” said Regnante. He became a Trustee of the Lynn Public Library in 1944 and served
until 1974. He served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees in 1954 until he moved to
Swampscott in 1962.

He served as Assistant Attorney General in 1963 under Attorney General Edward Brooke, who
recently received a Congressional Gold Medal. Regnante was Chief of the Torts, Claims, and
Collections division and sat on the Board of Appeals to the suspension of motor vehicle licenses
and the cancelation of motor vehicle insurance policies. He says one of the things that stands out
most in his life was what Brooke said to him after being elected Attorney General.

“Usually in politics if you support a certain candidate you will get rewarded, and if not, you’re not,
and here I was not supporting of Brooke and he sent for me and wanted me to be on his staff,”
said Regnante. “I said, ‘You know I didn’t support you,’ and I remember him saying, ‘But I
promised the people I would select the best nominee I could. You’re respective of politics and I
want you on the staff.’”

Regnante continued to serve as Special Assistant Attorney General under Elliot Richardson when
he was elected in 1969. His work ethic and dedication was also awarded when he was appointed
and re-appointed Public Administrator of the Commonwealth for 25 years by five different
governors of varied political stances.

While Regnante loved the work that he did, the most rewarding thing in his life was the family
that he made with his late wife of 50 years, Mary Regnante, who was a teacher in the Lynn school
system.

“I always felt wonderful that I was able to raise a family and have them do as well as they did,”
said Regnante, who is a father of two sons and two daughters, the grandfather of seven, and
great grandfather of 11. “That’s the most important thing that I felt in my life and that
accomplishment was more important than any other personal accomplishments that I have
experienced or gone through in life, and that I have done my job properly as a parent.”