Ulysses J. Lupien

Lowell city manager On November 29, 1952, the Lowell City Council voted five to four to appoint Lupien to the position of city manager. Lupien was elected over City Solicitor P. Harold Ready on the 10th ballot at a special meeting called days before incumbent city manager John J. Flannery was to retire due to ill health. Lupien was sworn in by the city clerk soon after the vote was taken. In September 1953, the Lowell retirement board ruled that Lupien, who would turn 70 in December, must quit by December 31 of that year, citing a provision in the retirement law dealing with employees who began their initial employment with the city after the age of 60. On November 10, 1953, the City Council voted five to three to remove Lupien from office in order to give the next city manager plenty of time to prepare the city's budget for the following year.

After his firing, Lupien campaigned to get his job back. Four city councilors strongly supported him and were ready to rehire him if a fifth councilor was willing to join them. He remained involved in Lowell politics by delivering a weekly "State of the Nation" radio address. On July 24, 1954, Lupien announced his candidacy for the Massachusetts Senate seat in the 1st Middlesex District, which included his hometown of Chelmsford as well as most of Lowell. He faced incumbent Senator Paul A. Achin and former Lowell City Council candidate Joseph N. Herbert. According to Fred A. Simmonds of The Boston Daily Globe, Lupien's candidacy was viewed by some as a test of strength in his effort to return to Lowell politics. Lupien finished second in the primary with 2731 (36%) votes to Achin's 4099 (54%).

Personal life and death Lupien lived on a small farm in Chelmsford from 1939 until his death. He had four sons, Ulysses John "Tony" Lupien Jr., an athletic standout at Harvard who played professional baseball for the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox, and in the Pacific Coast League, Albert J. Lupien, captain of the 1932 Harvard Crimson baseball team, Theodore A. Lupien, also a varsity athlete at Harvard, and Frank U. Lupien. and his great-granddaughter is computer scientist Natalie Enright Jerger.

Lupien died on August 15, 1965, at the Willow Nursing Home in Lowell. He was 81 years old.