ATTLEBORO - Former Mayor Thomas Piggott - a classic political outsider who rode to city hall on the crest of a property tax revolt in the mid-1960s and ended the reign of Attleboro's longest-serving mayor - died Tuesday night.

He was 85.

Piggott, who had lived for several years at 41 Bertram Road in North Attleboro, died at the Maples Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Wrentham following a lengthy illness.

He was elected mayor in 1965 and served three two-year terms.

Piggott, a small businessman in South Attleboro at the time, rose from relative obscurity to lead a tax revolt that swept him into office. He was elected by a landslide 6,543-4,185 vote, toppling eight-term Mayor Cyril Brennan.

The stunning upset came on the heels of a property revaluation that had been deferred for 17 years and sent residential taxes into orbit.

Former Mayor Judith Robbins, who was first appointed by Piggott to the city's planning board, called his death "very sad news."

"He first came forward as a property tax reformer," Robbins said. "Like every person elevated to mayor without experience, he was astonished at how government works.

"But he did quite a good job. He grew into the job."

Piggott's death saddened members of the city council Tuesday night as word spread during a break in deliberations.

None of the councilors are old enough to have served with him, but all know of his historic role in the tax revolt.

It was the first thing they mentioned when asked about Piggott. They remembered the admiration Piggott garnered as the leader of that famous movement.

Ward 2 Councilor George Ross said the city lost a great man.

"It's a sad day for Attleboro," Ross said. "He was a great guy. Everybody spoke highly of him." Bill Bowles, the longest serving member of the council, said he had the opportunity to talk with Piggott a number of times and was impressed by him.

While Piggott's best-known role was as the leader of the tax revolt, Bowles said he found him to be low key for a "revolutionary."

"I talked with him several times and found him to be a nice, down to earth gentleman," Bowles said. "We're all going to miss him."

Council Vice President Walter Thibodeau said Piggott had no great wish to be mayor, but took on the task as a duty at the urging of friends and others who supported his dismay at the city's failure to revalue property for almost two decades.

Thibodeau, a teenager at the time, recalled the uproar in the city.

"From what I understand, he had no desire to be mayor, whatsoever," Thibodeau said. "But he was convinced by his friends and neighbors that he had to do it. He came out of nowhere to serve."

The taxpayer revolt really was a revolt, and it began as soon as homeowners opened their tax bills.

During the late morning of Sept. 17, 1965, some 16 housewives had gathered to protest their bills outside the rented offices Attleboro used as city hall. Their signs read, "Rhode Island, Here We Come" and "I'll Sell to the City Assessor."

By 3 p.m., 500 people were milling outside city hall. A meeting was arranged for that night in the city council chambers, but was moved to the Attleboro High School auditorium because the crowd was so large and so loud.

Brennan attempted to quiet the crowd, but was booed at every attempt.

Enter Piggott, who was 42 at the time.

He grabbed a chair, stood on it and urged quiet. Before the night was over, he had taken command of the meeting.

By night's end, the Attleboro Association for Fairer Taxes was formed, and Piggott was its president.

He decided to run for mayor after he returned from a city council meeting, dejected as what he and others considered a lack of organization in city government.

"I sat at the kitchen table and thought," Piggott said in a 1993 interview. "I sat there all night. At 6 a.m., my wife, Jean, came down and asked me what I was doing. I said, 'I think I'm going to run for mayor.' "

Brennan, Piggott and three other challengers vied for mayor in the preliminary election less than three weeks after the march on city hall.

Piggott became what many considered to be the city's first full-time mayor, and during his tenure four schools were built, a master plan for growth was formulated and the groundwork was laid for the regional bus system and for the construction of city hall.

"It seemed the city was not at pace with the 20th century," Piggott recalled in the 1993 interview. "There was never a question that changes were going to come. It was just a matter of when."

And he always downplayed his role in the taxpayer revolt.

"The city at that time was ready for a change," he said. "The taxpayers revolt just brought everything to a head rather quickly."

Jean Piggott, his wife of 64 years, recalled her husband as "a good speaker, a good writer. He was very talented."

"I think he did a lot for the city. He got everyone involved," she said. "It was time."

Funeral arrangements are pending at Duffy-Poule Funeral Home in Attleboro.