ParfumGigi@aol.com

By Bella English, Globe Staff | June 16, 2005

Wait a minute. What is this huge billboard near Brockton High School that says something about Ken Feinberg Appreciation Day on June 17? Feinberg, isn't he the guy who handled the multibillion-dollar fund for the victims and survivors of 9/11? Why Brockton? Isn't he some suit from New York or D.C.? Nope. Turns out that Brockton's favorite son -- OK, second favorite, after Rocky Marciano -- is Kenneth Feinberg, the special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

Feinberg grew up in Brockton, graduated from Brockton High in 1963, and went on to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, as did his older sister, Ruth, and his younger brother, David. His parents, high school sweethearts in Chelsea, moved to Brockton in 1941, where his dad ran a used-tire business.

Feinberg was an average student at best. ''I got killed by math, science, and chemistry," he says, ''but I did very well in history, English, and government."

Regardless, he'll return to town tomorrow as a revered guest, an entire day laid out in his honor: morning festivities at City Hall, noontime lunch at the War Memorial Auditorium hosted by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a fund-raising dinner with Senator Ted Kennedy, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at the Shaw's Center.

''This entire thing is like a fairy tale. I am unbelievably proud of this," he says from his office in Washington, D.C., where he is a lawyer and mediator. ''To go back and explain what Brockton meant to me. . . . It really helped form my priorities and what's important to me in the way of friendship and loyalty."

''I learned something about pulling yourself up," says Feinberg, 60. ''I learned that you're limited only by your vision. And if you can find teachers and parents and friends to help define that vision, you can go out and achieve anything."

It was those childhood friends who proposed tomorrow's party. They approached Mayor John Yunits with the idea of honoring Feinberg for his work on the 9/11 fund. ''It's the only time in our history that anything like this has been done, bringing nearly 3,000 cases to resolution," says Yunits.

What is life worth?Though Brockton's schools have had problems in the past with low test scores, absenteeism, and inadequate funding, Feinberg says he appreciates the education he got. ''I think I could name every single teacher I had in the Brockton school system, from grades one to 12. No, it was not Brookline or Newton, which we always thumbed our noses at, but I still got a first-rate education."

His favorite teacher was Miss Maria Dounelis, in the sixth grade at Lincoln Elementary School. ''She was sort of cool, young, with-it," he says.

Miss Maria Dounelis is now Mrs. Maria Bradley, 75 years old, retired, and living in Boston. ''What can I say about Kenny? He was a skinny kid who wore glasses, and you would think of him in present-day language as a nerd. But he certainly was not. He was smart, he was funny, he was an instigator, he got things going. We had a lot of fun in that class."

After college, Feinberg earned a law degree from New York University. He worked for Kennedy and went on to become the senator's chief of staff. He eventually opened his own law practice, handling high-profile disputes involving Agent Orange, the Dalkon Shield birth control device, silicone breast implants, and asbestos exposure.

After the 9/11 attacks, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft appointed Feinberg special master of the nearly $7 billion fund for survivors: victims could take what Feinberg offered them, or sue the airlines used in the attacks. In the end, nearly 97 percent of them settled with Feinberg, for an average $2 million, tax-free. His book, ''What Is Life Worth?" just out this week, is dedicated ''with respect and admiration to the victims, families, and all those who suffered losses in the attacks of September 11, 2001."

But many families thought Feinberg was insensitive to their suffering and needs. Some didn't like the bottom line he offered them; others didn't like his brusque style. Christie Coombs of Abington, whose husband, Jeffrey, was killed on American Airlines Flight 11, met with Feinberg to discuss her case. Coombs, a widow with three children, said Feinberg's dealings with families improved over time.

''They certainly didn't pick anyone warm and fuzzy to get this job done, and I think that was by design," says Coombs, who is on the family advisory committee of the Mass. 9/11 Fund, a statewide advocacy group. ''He was brash, and at times he appeared insensitive, but he learned to deal with families better as time went on."

Feinberg, who spent 32 months on the 9/11 task, pro bono, agrees that he learned from the families. ''I think I did underestimate the emotions connected with this, but time does heal a bit. I think the families also came around to the view that there was no hidden agenda here, that the program was on the up and up."

Turning kinder and gentlerNext to Feinberg's Brockton High yearbook photo is this quote: ''Talent knows what to do; tact knows how to do it." He was also named senior with the ''best sense of humor" and ''best actor."

Bob Epstein, a childhood friend, says he believes the task of overseeing the 9/11 fund changed Feinberg irrevocably. ''I think probably some of the earlier criticism was justified. Number one, Kenny had to get an idea of what was out there. . . . He doesn't make the same mistakes twice. I think he corrected his style, became a little more compassionate. He's a kinder, gentler Kenny Feinberg."

During the time Feinberg was working on the settlements, another Brockton friend, Tony Dorn, was gravely ill. Epstein says that Feinberg would fly to Boston and drive to Falmouth, where Dorn was in the hospital. ''Kenny's the guy you want in the foxhole with you," says Epstein, president of Horizon Beverage Co.

Barry Koretz, who has known Feinberg since first grade, recalls his friend's early love of classical music and opera. ''I thought at first he was putting me on," says Koretz, an architect. (Feinberg is leaving his extensive classical and opera collection to the city of Brockton). They played sports together at the Young Men's Hebrew Association. ''We had the same interests, the same amount of energy toward studying, which wasn't much." But, Koretz says, Feinberg surprised friends by graduating from college with honors and giving a commencement address.

Those childhood friends -- Epstein, Koretz, Reebok CEO Paul Fireman, local dentist Robert Haglund, Larry Noonan of Noonan Oil, and others -- are helping organize tomorrow's events. At Feinberg's request, the money raised will help renovate the War Memorial Auditorium as an arts center. Feinberg donated $50,000.

And as of tomorrow, the Shaw's Center and Campanelli Stadium, where the Brockton Rox baseball team plays, will have new addresses. Right now they're on Lexington Avenue. But they will then be on Attorney Kenneth Feinberg Way.