Cambridge City Solicitor Resigns Post After Vacation Dispute With Council

Cambridge City Solicitor Philip M. Cronin '53, under fire from several members of the City Council, resigned from his $19,000-a-year post effective last Thursday.

Cronin, vacationing in Maine, was unavailable for comment yesterday. City Manager John H. Corcoran declined to release Cronin's letter of resignation or make any statement except to confirm that Cronin had resigned August 3.

Cronin was sharply criticized during the City Council's August 2 meeting for his absence from four previous Council sessions discussing the City Manager dispute. The four independent councillors and liberal Henry F. Owens III voted to adjourn these meetings when Cronin did not appear to give opinions on procedural matters.

Cronin was sailing off the coast of Maine on his one week annual vacation at the time these earlier meetings were called.

When Owens asked him when he had returned from Maine, Cronin replied, "It's none of your business."

"He felt they were giving him a lot of abuse," Michael J. Lack, Cronin's law partner, said. "They weren't looking for legal advice; they were looking for a scapegoat," Lack said.

Cronin's wife was in an automobile accident several months ago, according to Lack, and Cronin felt she had not recovered sufficiently for him to leave her alone in Maine.

Cronin was appointed to the City Solicitor post in February, 1968.