Frank J. Leveroni

Frank J. Leveroni (born September 10, 1879, Genoa, Italy) was an Italian-American judge. ["The American catholic who's who", 1911]

"In 1905, Frank J. Leveroni was appointed a special justice of the Boston Juvenile Court, the first man of Italian descent to hold a judicial position in Massachusetts." This fact was cited in a Worcester Telegram op-ed piece dated Sunday, October 30, 2005, entitled Professor Tracks Ascent of State’s Italian-Americans, written by Albert B. Southwick. But there's far more about the life of Frank J. Leveroni than meets the eye. He was not only appointed a special justice of the juvenile court of Boston, but he was known as an individual who helped found and support the juvenile justice system in this country around the turn of the century. And he was a philanthropist of the first order. He is known for founding the Home for Italian Children in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, an institution that stands to this day (currently known as the Italian Home for Children, a private school mainly for special education, with 45% children of color). Judge Leveroni founded this orphanage to support the children on the street he encountered in the juvenile justice system. It was his way of giving back to the community.

"A Century of Judges of Italian Descent in Massachusetts", by Rev. Vincent A. Lapomarda, S.J., tells the story of the many influential Italian Americans who have been involved in enforcing and upholding the law in the Bay State. From Frank J. Leveroni, the first Italian American to be appointed a judge in 1905, to Suzanne Vitagliano DelVecchio, the 1999 chief justice appointee of the Superior Court, Lapomarda recounts the 100-year history of judges of Italian descent in the state; he ends his work with a list of 110 of these judges and their roles. In its companion volume, "A Half Century of Mayors of Italian Descent in Massachusetts", Lapomarda recounts the rise of Italian Americans to the chief executive office of cities across the commonwealth over the last 50 years; he ends this work with a list of these mayors, their respective cities and their dates of service.

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