John A. Danaher

John Anthony Danaher (January 9, 1899 – September 22, 1990) was a United States Senator from Connecticut.

Born in Meriden, Connecticut, he attended the local schools and during the First World War served in the Student's Army Training Corps at Yale University and in the Officers' Reserve Corps. He graduated from Yale University in 1920, studied law at Yale Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1922 and commenced practice in Hartford, Connecticut.

He was assistant United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut from 1922 to 1934, was Secretary of the State of Connecticut from 1933 to 1935, and was a member of the State Board of Finance and Control from 1933 to 1935.

In 1938, Danaher was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican, and served from January 3, 1939 to January 3, 1945; he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1944, and resumed the practice of law in Hartford and Washington, D.C.

He was appointed a circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President Dwight Eisenhower and took the oath of office on November 20, 1953; he assumed senior status in 1969 and served on a part-time basis in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit until his retirement in 1980.

Danaher was a resident of West Hartford until his death, aged 91. His interment was at Sacred Heart Cemetery, Meriden.

His grandson, John A. Danaher III, is the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Safety.