Beverly To Name Harbormaster Building After Daniel McPherson

BEVERLY, MA — A series of emotional testimonials preceded a unanimous City Council vote and a standing ovation from those in the Council chambers — including more than a dozen Beverly police personnel — to name the Beverly harbormaster building after longtime Harbormaster Daniel McPherson, who died unexpectedly on Jan. 7, 2022.

McPherson was credited with transitioning operations from its former home inside of the McDonald's building to where it is today — and will be known as the Daniel G. McPherson Harbor Center.

"Dan made that building happen," Beverly Police Chief John LeLacheur said. "He's the one who designed it and made it a professional building. It works the way it does today because of Dan. So I feel it's extremely important that it should be named after Dan for the reason that he moved it from the old McDonald's. If you go down to the basement there and see what Danny kept there it was amazing.

"(To transition) that into the new building, which was his design, that he put his mark on, I think it's appropriate that it has his name on it."

The Medford native was a political science major at Salem State University who came to Beverly where he was a youth soccer coach and teacher as well a tireless servant and mentor to both those in Beverly and off its shore.

"I got to know Dan first before I was mayor — fairly long before that — because I think as a lot of you must know there are hundreds and hundreds of kids, and thousands of parents, who are incredibly grateful for Dan's passion for soccer," Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill told the City Council. "Because he did a ton of coaching. I think I first met him when he was coaching my nephew, who absolutely loved him. So getting to know Dan over the last several years in the context of him being one of our department heads, I've got to say he was universally respected and loved by everyone he worked with.

"None of what I am hearing tonight, and from what I've heard from some of you folks over the past year, is surprising. Knowing what a professional he was. Knowing how much honor he felt in the work he did and how important he knew the mentoring and guidance that he was able to provide was ... you know that it was because he had such a good, and such a big, heart that he poured into all the work he did.

"There's so much to say on Dan's behalf. There's so much that I know any one of you could get up and say."

Cahill told the Council he would promptly sign the ordinance into effect with its passage, which the Council did unanimously on the spot without referring it back to the committee for a vote later in the evening.

"It certainly seems appropriate to me to have that posthumous standing ovation for Harbormaster Dan McPherson," City Council Chair Julie Flowers said after the unanimous vote. "A life incredibly well-lived and a life of immense service."

(Scott Souza is a patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)