On Thursday, thousands of people—city officials, legislators, members of Congress and everyday Newtonians alike—stood in a line that stretched through two floors of City Hall and out to the roundabout outside to say a proper farewell to a friend, leader and city icon.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry was there, and so were former U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, among other high-profile figures interspersed among the scores of residents, city workers and friends who shared a love and respect for Setti Warren and wanted to pay their respects to his wife, Tassy, and their kids, Abigail and John.

“He was the kind of person who liked a big tent, and he worked well with everybody,” State Sen. Cindy Creem said. “He was very respectful. He certainly understood politics, but he understood the art of getting along and the negotiating. And I have to say, that was a very important thing, that he could bring people together and work with everyone. And I’m devastated.”

John Rice served on the City Council while Warren was mayor, and he worked on both of Warren’s mayoral campaigns.

“The first campaign, where so many people didn’t know him, he went door to door, and he spent a whole year going to every door in the City of Newton,” Rice recalled. “And when he won the election, everyone was so happy, and some people were surprised, because he was a political newcomer in Newton. He lived here his whole life, but him winning that first election was such a great time.”

Rice was elected to the Board of Aldermen—which soon after became the City Council—the same year Warren was elected mayor and the same year current Mayor Ruthanne Fuller was elected to the City Council as well.

“We all worked together on so many projects and so many different endeavors,” Rice said. “And he loved the city.”

Thousands stood in line to pay their respects to the family of former Mayor Setti Warren, who died at the age of 55. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

Warren was born and raised in Newton, the son of African-American studies professor Joseph Warren and social worker Elidia Warren. He graduated from Newton North High School, where he served as class president, and he earned a degree in history from Boston College, where he was also student body president. He got his law degree at Suffolk University Law School in 2006.

Warren worked for President Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign in 1996 and held various jobs in the Clinton administration from 1996 to 2001, including the role of regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He worked for Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004 and later worked in Kerry’s Senate office. Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, are godparents to Warren’s daughter.

Locally, Warren served on the Newton Community Preservation Committee and the Newton Economic Development Commission. And in 2007, Warren—who had enlisted in the Naval Reserve a few years before—went to Iraq to serve as an intelligence specialist. A year later, after Mayor David Cohen announced that he wouldn’t seek re-election, Warren decided to run for mayor. He got a late start, because he had to wait until his tour in Iraq was over to start campaigning.

“He was just such an unbelievably dedicated public servant, and he set the bar really high, and he cared so much about people, and he just thrived on making a difference in people’s lives,” Aaron Goldman, longtime friend of Warren’s who worked in his administration, said.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 7, at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady Help of Christians Church, 573 Washington St. Burial will be private.