A singular figure for his mind, energy, wit, sharp tongue, sense of humor, hands-on approach and embodiment of values that trace to the economic liberalism of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the social enlightenment of Abraham Lincoln, Frank began his career in public service as the deputy mayor and innovator in Kevin White's Boston City Hall operation in 1968.

His congressional output expanded during the past and current term which featured the massive Dodd-Frank Act; it was an attempt — within the limits of the possible, Frank's terrain — to rein in the worst excesses of the banking and investment cultures that begat the financial decline from the housing bubble and the confidence and credit crises that continue to roll around the world.

Frank said in a news conference in Newton, where he lives, that — rather than run again — he would shift focus to defending the financial reform that bears his name and directing the need for deficit reduction to the military.

Read the complete story by Richard Gaines in The Gloucester Times