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Former Northborough Police Chief To Deliver Invocation At RNC

NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — A former Massachusetts police chief and longtime friend of Mitt Romney has been asked by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to deliver the invocation before the acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

Kenneth Hutchins said he was "flabbergasted" but honored when one of Romney's sons asked him to give the prayer on the convention's final night Thursday.

The 71-year-old Hutchins said he didn't hesitate to accept even though he is battling cancer.

Hutchins, who was police chief in Northborough from 1980 until 2003, has had a relationship with Romney since the 1980s when the two worked together on the charitable and religious missions of the Boston stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Hutchins succeeded Romney as stake president in Boston in 1994.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

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