(DNAINFO) Ben Fractenberg | March 9, 2016 — William E. Bratton died Thursday night in his hometown of Weymouth, Massachusetts.

William E. Bratton, 89, a World War II veteran, died near Boston, of an undisclosed illness. He was remembered as a hard-working man, who pulled himself up from poverty to join the navy and then raise a family.

“He had a hard scrabble upbringing and always worked two jobs to support himself and later his family,” said Commissioner Bratton. “He’d tell you that the highlight of his life was meeting our mother.”

William met his wife, June, in the Boston’s Bunker Hill housing project in the early 1940s. He joined the navy in 1944, and married June in 1946.

Source: Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s Father Passes Away at 89 – Civic Center – DNAinfo.com New York