O'Neill's tenure in the office saw the district weather the civil rights movement, the expansion of national social programs, the extension of urban sprawl, the Vietnam War and increasing gentrification in Cambridge.

Even with widespread socio-economic and ethnic diversity, some residents said they felt no observable racial tensions in the district during the turbulent 1960s.

Cambridge resident Rita Corkery, who has lived in the district since 1954 and was a long-time liaison between Harvard and the city, said the area weathered the struggle for civil rights with little wear and tear.

"I think people got along very well," she said. "I never felt that there was any racial tensions."

Cambridge Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55, who "flirted" with the idea of running for the seat in 1986, remembers a different district.

Disputes over curriculum in the area's already progressive school systems created division within the district during the civil rights era.

The University itself further exacerbated racial tensions when it tried to expand into predominantly minority areas of Cambridge and Allston, Duehay says.

Duehay points to activist Sondra Graham's disruption of the Harvard commencement in 1971 as a perfect example of such underlying racial tension.

Still, in the late 1960s, as a glut of federal money began pouring in to build low-income housing, the district dealt with the tensions of the civil rights era better than most others.

Parts of the district avoided problems by eschewing mandatory busing, a flashpoint issue for other communities.

"There was never a school integration fight," Kenney said. "People were able to pick schools."

Although O'Neill returned to the district every weekend before he became speaker, some observers say he ironically refused to entangle himself in local politics.

Still, O'Neill had an intense, old-school personal charm.

"I would drop by his office...and he would keep everybody waiting and greet local constituents," Duehay recalls.

"He had a very unusual quality in that when you spoke to him, you would think the only thing he had on his mind was his conversation with you," the new mayor says.