Royal L. Bolling Sr.,

82, patriarch of a black political family in Boston, died Tuesday at his summer home in Martha's Vineyard of pancreatic cancer.

Mr. Bolling served 12 years in the state House and six years in the state Senate before losing a 1988 re-election bid to Bill Owens Sr. During a four-year period in the early 1980s, Mr. Bolling held the Senate seat, son Royal Jr. was a state representative and son Bruce was a Boston city councilman. The elder Bolling was a sponsor of the state law that cleared the way for the desegregation of Boston's public schools in the 1970s.

In 1943, he joined the "Buffalo Soldiers" 92nd Army Infantry Division. He earned the Silver Star and a Purple Heart in World War II.