Nagy Left Memories That Will Bring 'Joy and Comfort'

Hamilton Police Sgt. Ken Nagy was remembered as a man who created many wonderful memories for many people, during his funeral on Friday.

“Those are the very memories that will give you joy and comfort in the future, in time,” said Rev. Louis Bourgeois, the former priest who married Nagy and his wife Katie.

“Father B,” as many in Hamilton and Wenham know him, also serves as the chaplain for the . Nagy and Bourgeois met not long after Nagy began with the police department 19 years ago and Bourgeois arrived at in Hamilton.

Bourgeois extended his condolences to Nagy’s wife Katie, their two sons, Nagy’s brother and sisters and his “dear, dear” friends at the Hamilton Police Department in his sermon at .

“We extend our sincere condolences,” he said, speaking on behalf of St. James’ Pastor, Rev. John Sheridan, “in this, a very deep hour of bereavement.”

Many members of the Hamilton Police Department, dressed in suits, attended the funeral.

Bourgeois noted the size of his wake on Thursday night at e and the hundreds of mourners that filled St. James on Friday morning.

The song “Circle of Life” in the movie “Lion King” says that someone’s life is not measured by its length but “rather how much love he, or she, has generated during his or her lifetime.”

“His circle of life is vast,” Bourgeois said during the traditional Catholic funeral Mass.

Two of Nagy’s best friends, Ken Goulart and Frank Catapano, offered a brief eulogy.

Catapano recalled a time when he was at his parent’s house, not long after Nagy joined the Hamilton Police Department. He was in the living room when someone knocked on the door. His mother answered it, but quickly closed it.

“She said it was a religious missionary so she closed the door as quickly as she could,” Catapano said, noting his mother was a devoted Italian Catholic.

The doorbell rang again shortly afterward; Catapano answered the door this time, only to find Nagy, dressed in a suit.

“Mom, this is my friend, Ken Nagy,” Catapano told his mom. “From that day forward Ken Nagy was instantly connected to my family,” he said.

Catapano also noted that he always saw Nagy smiling.

“We will remember his smile,” he said, later mentioning another of Nagy’s distinguishing physical traits. “I can remember him doing his eye roll that his brother Andy has also mastered.”

Goulart, who spoke before Catapano, said; “At this point it is impossible to do justice to how good a man Ken Nagy was or how much he meant to us all.”

Bourgeois said when he met with Katie Nagy she asked him where Ken was.

“Kenny is with his God,” he said.

Bourgeois said he could not explain what led to Nagy shooting Beverly Police Officer Jason Lantych outside the North Beverly Starbucks last Friday and then taking his own life nearly five hours later.

“I do not know,” he said.

The shooting remains under investigation by the Essex County District Attorney’s office. Lantych continues to recover at Beverly Hospital.

Nagy’s burial was private.