Duehay said PBHA approached him about co-chairing the campaign in October. However, because he was serving the last months of his mayoral term, he was very busy and had to postpone accepting the offer.

He said he spent the month of January talking with PBHA officials, College officials, alumni and students, making sure they "really wanted" him to help.

"I wanted to make sure that all of the constituencies...were all together in this and understood it," he said.

Duehay also said 17,000 alumni have had some involvement with PBHA during their College careers, and that the campaign will eventually reach out to all of those alumni.

Duehay, the standard-bearer of the progressive Cambridge Civic Association (CCA), was known for being pragmatic, methodical and skilled at bringing opposing camps together during his council career, which spanned from 1972 to 2000.

In a January interview, Duehay said his biggest achievements were the roles he played in stabilizing the city's management and in affordable housing.

When he first arrived on the council, the city had had five or six city managers within a six-year period.

Now, City Manager Robert W. Healy has been in office for nearly two decades, and has led the city to become one of the six best-financed cities in the U.S., according to bond-rating organizations.