In Memoriam
Daniel A. Bancroft
Former Board Member
We are saddened by the loss of Dan Bancroft (obituary). Dan Bancroft lived in southern Maine after 45 years as a trial partner in the firm of Broderick Bancroft & Saccardi, now located in Somerville. During his career, he represented owners and managers of subsidized housing in Massachusetts trial and appellate courts, as well as administrative agencies, including the MCAD and the Boston Fair Housing Commission. In addition to litigation matters, he advised clients on non-discriminatory tenant selection policies and matters pertaining to disabled applicants and tenants, including reasonable accommodation. He was a trainer and lecturer on fair housing issues for more than 25 years.
Arthur L. Johnson
Founder and Former Board Chair
We mourn the passing of Commonwealth Land Trust’s founding President and long-time Board Chair, Arthur Johnson. (obituary)
Arthur was a community development lawyer with an extensive litigation and transactional background. He served as a director at Commonwealth Land Trust since its creation and for many years its chairman. He had over eighteen years of experience as a clinical law teacher in the area of community economic development. Arthur specialized in the creative use of the legal process to facilitate the development of healthy and stable urban communities. He taught courses in real estate law and community economic development at numerous institutions, including Harvard Law School, Boston College Law School, Northeastern Law School, Suffolk University Law School, and the New Hampshire College Graduate School of Business.
Mr. Johnson received an AB in Philosophy from the College of the Holy Cross and a JD from Northeastern University Law School. He ran the Law Office of Arthur L. Johnson, a law practice concentrating in real estate, community economic development, and land use/zoning. He also served as a director at the Neighborhood Development Corporation of Jamaica Plain.
Richard Brown
Former Board Member and Chair of Lower Roxbury Residents’ Association
Mr. Brown served on the Commonwealth Land Trust Board of Directors and chaired the Lower Roxbury Residents’ Association since 1989. He was a United States veteran having served in World War II and Korea. Mr. Brown earned a bachelor of arts and master’s degree in mathematics from Boston University. He taught mathematics at the elementary through college level at several institutions, including Tuskegee University, Boston Latin Academy, The Lewis School, and Boston Technical High School. He chaired the math departments of Wayland Junior High School and John D. O’Bryant School. During the desegregation of Boston’s public schools in the 1970s, he served as the director of minority recruitment for the Boston Public School System.He served in a leadership capacity in the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post of African Americans. He was the co-founder and first President of RUFC (Roxbury Unites for Families and Children), an agency designed to enhance the well-being and mental health of families in Roxbury. He served as the District 9 Coordinator for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the Council of Elders. Mr. Brown was a lifelong member of the Peoples Baptist Church and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was president of the Boston Baptist Social Union and a past member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Vocational and Technical Education.
Daniel Janey
Former Board Member
We mourn the passing of board member Daniel Janey, LICSW, who in private practice trained social workers for community non-profits and private clients.
Previously, he had worked for 35 years with the Forensics Services Division of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, conducting intake evaluations and working with inmates while they were in custody and as they prepared for release. He had been a support leader for Young Men of Color at Phillips Exeter Academy and an Adjunct Professor in Social Work at Lesley University and Bunker Hill Community College. He served as Chairman of the Board of Hawthorne Community Center, an after-school program in Roxbury’s Fort Hill neighborhood. He earned an MSW from Boston College, a BS in Social Work from Gordon College, and an associate’s degree from UMass Amherst.