GREENFIELD — Family and friends are mourning the loss of longtime city resident Mark Maloney, a dedicated public servant who devoted decades of his life to bettering the city of Greenfield. Maloney, 63, died at home on Friday after a period of declining health, according to his family. 

“Mark loved serving Greenfield,” said his wife, Martha Maloney. “He loved that he was helping the community his sons were growing up in. … He really appreciated the opportunity to be someone who served his hometown.”

“Mark was one of the most professional, dedicated, hardworking public servants Greenfield has ever seen, in my opinion,” said Tim Farrell, whose 10 years on City Council overlapped with Maloney’s tenure. “He also worked with common sense. He worked for the best of the entire community. His heart really was in Greenfield and findings ways to help Greenfield succeed.”

Zoning Board of Appeals member David Singer shared a similar sentiment and said Maloney had a strong presence as chairman of the board, but “as long as applicants did their homework, they got a fair shake.”

“His legacy is public work,” he said. 

Maloney served on the Zoning Board of Appeals for more than 20 years, the last six as chairman. He also served on the Franklin County Technical School Committee, and before that, served multiple terms as a city councilor, two of them as council president. 

“He really was what New England volunteer government is about and should be about — finding solutions and working for the betterment of all,” Farrell said. “He did that both as a councilor, a member of the Zoning Board, and a longtime member of the Franklin Technical School Committee.”

Farrell said that even in the years after both of them served as city councilors, Maloney still followed what was happening around the city. 

“It was a common occurrence that Mark would come in (to Farrell’s office) and we would hash out the local issues of Greenfield,” he said. 

Maloney also used those times with Farrell as a chance to fundraise for the Boy Scouts, another local organization in which Maloney, a Boy Scout himself, was deeply involved.

“When it was time to sell canisters of popcorn, Mark was here making sure I bought canisters of popcorn,” Farrell said, sitting across from a badge Maloney brought him for his support of the Cub Scouts. 

All three of Maloney’s sons — John, 25, Aengus, 22 and Ruari, 20 — were involved in Scouting. During their years as Scouts, Maloney was a longtime cubmaster and scoutmaster. His wife was involved as well, sewing dozens of badges on her sons’ uniforms, and doing the same for their friends. 

“I was amazed to see him master Zoom so that Cub Scouts could continue and thrive during COVID,” Martha Maloney said. “He set up the remote meetings and then would move the different groups of kids and parents into breakout rooms and move from room to room to check in. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised because it was so important to him that the kids had that stability of those weekly meetings while everything else was crazy.”

Maloney, who often brought his children to public meetings, was a “great family man,” commented Mayor Roxann Wedegartner.

“He was a great father and a good husband,” she said. “He was devoted to his boys. … Anybody who knew him well will tell you that.”

Not long after Wedegartner joined the Planning Board in 2001, Maloney became a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals. 

“I was very fond of Mark,” she said. “We had a sparring relationship. He and Roy Cowdrey, who is also deceased, were my favorite sparring partners.”

These debates were often over which board should handle particular permits, she explained. 

“We would go round and round,” Wedegartner recalled. “The best thing … was that we could have these discussions bordering on arguments respectfully, agree to disagree, walk away and still be friends. That’s a really important quality in someone who is in public service.”

Maloney’s term was expected to expire in June 2025, meaning his position will need to be filled, Wedegartner said. 

“It’s going to have to be a hard one to fill,” she said. 

Wedegartner said that after she became mayor in 2020, Maloney was one of the people who often stopped by her office to go over items that were set to appear before the Zoning Board of Appeals.

“We had a very good relationship,” she said. “ I will miss him.”

Maloney was born in Greenfield, and Martha Maloney said that for her husband, Greenfield was always home. He’d attended Greenfield Public Schools and graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon School. 

He loved traveling, having visited more than 20 countries. But even after a period of time away — he went to Wesleyan University and then lived for some time in Boston and then New Hampshire — he always returned to Franklin County. 

Speaking by phone Tuesday afternoon, Martha recalled her first time in Greenfield with Maloney. She had come to meet his mother, she recalled. Maloney took her on a walk around Greenfield that hit “so many points he was excited to show me.” That included the walk along the ridge around Rocky Mountain Park, she said, followed by a movie at the Greenfield Garden Cinemas. 

“It was clear that if we settled down together,” she said, “it would be here.”

Calling hours are Friday evening from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Kostanski Funeral Home, 220 Federal St. In lieu of flowers, consider a donation to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, to fund Type 1 diabetes research: www.jdrf.org/donate/. For condolences, visit www.kostanskifuneralhome.com.

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