US Senator Paul Tsongas, Famous Resident of Lowell, Massachusetts

Paul Efthemios Tsongas and his twin sister Thaleia, were born on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1941. His father, a dry cleaner from Lowell, was Greek, and his mother was a native of Massachusetts. A gifted student, Paul went through the Lowell public school system, and then attended Dartmouth College and Yale University, graduating with a law degree. He served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia and the West Indies before returning to Lowell to start his family and his political career. In 1969, Paul married Niki Sauvage, who took his last name and later held the same Congressional position held by Paul.

Tsongas’ first foray into politics came in 1969, when he was elected to the first of two terms in Lowell’s City Counsel. He moved through the political ranks, later becoming a Middlesex County commissioner, a Democratic Representative for Massachusetts in Congress, and then a United States Senator, representing the district in which he was raised.

Tsongas was known as a supporter of business, and his economic policies reflected these views. Along with US Senator, Warren B. Rudman and former Secretary of Commerce Peter George Peterson, Tsongas founded the Concord Coalition, an advocacy group focused on balancing the US federal budget.

Tsongas announced his retirement from the Senate in 1984 after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and after battling the disease successfully, he returned to politics with a bid for president of the United States in 1992. US Senator Tsongas was defeated in his bid for the Democratic Party candidate by Bill Clinton, and he returned to his law practice. Not long thereafter, his cancer returned, and he died on January 18, 1997 from pneumonia and liver failure associated with the treatment of his cancer.

On January 27, 1998, the Paul E. Tsongas Arena was opened and dedicated in Tsongas’ hometown of Lowell, MA. It was said of Paul Tsongas that he knew every person on Main Street in Lowell at every time in his life, from childhood up until his passing. He was and is a beloved son of Lowell, MA.