Bill Dermody sits in Bagel’s Best in Needham Center, and he can’t help but remember it all. He’s been in Needham for nearly all of his 66 years, so this isn’t just a bagel shop to him. He also recalls what came before, sees it in his mind’s eye.
“This was a bank, before this. And the wine store, on the corner, that was The Crest,” he said, referring to the general store that occupied the corner where Needham Center Fine Wines now resides, from the 1920s to the 1990s.
Dermody’s roots in Needham go back three generations; his grandmother, Frances Dermody, ran the Needham Community Council and as he recalls, “was one of the people you see to get things done in town.” Dermody himself ran for Town Meeting at 20 years old while still at Boston College ﹘ where he met his wife, Cathy ﹘ and has now served on the body for more than 45 years. He is a current member and past president of the Exchange Club, sits on the boards of Needham Community Television and Friends of the Traveling Meals and is active in leadership of several regional and national realty organizations. He has served on the Parks and Recreation Committee and is a Memorial Park Trustee. His work as a Realtor puts him in front of people as well; he is currently regional sales manager for Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Commonwealth Real Estate.
But to many in Needham, he is most familiar for his work with town sports. By his own account, Dermody has coached more than 100 Needham sports teams across various sports, coaching for each of his four children and beyond. But he is even more well-known as the voice of Needham High School sports, broadcasting hundreds of games over more than a decade.
“Seven state championships later, I keep saying, I’m gonna get out, and they keep calling me,” Dermody joked.
His involvement in town sports and his service on so many boards and in so many organizations over so many years has given him a connection with Needham residents spanning multiple generations.
“I remember a kid, Bobby Riley. I coached him in like, St. Joe’s basketball, fifth and sixth grade. And now I’m on a committee with him,” Dermody shook his head.
But it has also given him a broad perspective on town issues, and on the changes in Needham over time.
“Everyone says the town has changed so much. And I think physically, yes, that has been a big change, but it’s the people that make the town, right? I still think the people are great,” Dermody said.
That perspective brings with it a familiarity with what has been tried and failed in the past, why things are the way they are, what type of change is realistic and what is pie-in-the-sky.
“What I think I have is the institutional knowledge,” Dermody said. “I have a lot of knowledge of what we’ve tried to do. Because sometimes people come and always, say, oh, we could do this. We do this, and they don’t think we’ve ever thought of it, and we might have thought of it, absolutely.”
That also gives him, he believes, a recognition of when government has gone too far, and tried something that is a net negative. He sees that with the Envision project, and discussions of whether to reduce Great Plain Avenue down to two lanes at points while removing some storefront parking. That parking, he said, is more important than people realize to ensure the businesses in Needham Center survive.
“[Shoppers] don’t want to park in a municipal lot and walk and get the florist,” Dermody said. “They want to park in front. They want to go to Comellas, get their pizza, get in and get out. They don’t want to have to park in the lot, walk down there. So I really, really see the need to protect the parking for the merchants.”
This is Dermody’s first run for the Select Board, but it is not his first run for office ﹘ he previously ran for State Representative.
Dermody planned to run in the Democratic primary to replace longtime State Representative Denise Garlick in 2024, but as a longtime unenrolled voter, he had missed the deadline for party enrollment. Running as an independent, he ultimately lost to Democrat Josh Tarsky in the general election.
Now he is back on the campaign trail, saying that he hadn’t really considered a run for Select Board before, partly because of the time involved. If he wins, he recognizes he’ll have to scale back some of his other commitments. That’s OK, he says. This is the latest way he can be a part of a place that has given him so much.
“I just love the town,” he said. “And hopefully we can keep it such a wonderful town.”
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