Maurice J. Tobin

Maurice Joseph Tobin (May 22, 1901 – July 19, 1953) was a Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, the 56th Governor of the U.S. state of Massachusetts, and U.S. Secretary of Labor.^[1][2][3]

Tobin was born in Mission Hill, Boston, Massachusetts to James Tobin, a carpenter, and Margaret Daly. He was the eldest of four children including Timothy F. (b.1902), Margaret M. (b.1905) and James G. (b. 1907). He graduated from Boston College and worked for Conway Leather and New England Telephone, before entering politics as a protege of the legendary James Michael Curley. Tobin was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives at the age of 25, serving from 1927 to 1929. In November 1932 he married Helen Noonan of Brighton, Massachusetts, with whom he had three children. He served on the Boston School Committee from 1931 to 1937, before shocking the political establishment by defeating Curley in the 1937 race for Mayor of Boston.^[1][2]

He served as Mayor from 1938 to 1945, during which time he advocated the Fair Employment Practices Bill, which prohibited discrimination based on race, color, creed, and national origin in hiring or promotion practices. During his tenure as mayor, the Cocoanut Grove fire occurred in Boston. Prior to the fire, club owner Barney Welansky boasted that that club had not needed to adhere to fire codes because Tobin would not permit his club to be closed. Welansky was convicted of manslaughter, and Tobin himself only narrowly escaped indictment. Four years into Welansky's sentence, now-Governor Tobin pardoned him. In 1944, Tobin was elected Governor, and served two years from 1945 to 1947. His administration was marked by efforts to increase the benefits of unemployment insurance and workers compensation. He is also credited with the creation of Massport. In 1946, he was defeated for re-election by his Lieutenant Governor, Robert F. Bradford.^[1][2][4]

Governor Tobin remained active in Democratic politics, however, and campaigned vigorously for President Truman in 1948. Upon Truman's election, Tobin was appointed as U.S. Secretary of Labor, a position he held from 1948 to 1953. Shortly after he left his position as Labor Secretary, Governor Tobin died of a heart attack on July 19, 1953. He is buried in Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts.^[1][2]

Legacies

• A men's dormitory facility on the Long Island Hospital campus on Long Island in Boston Harbor is dedicated to Tobin. The Tobin Building's cornerstone was laid on November 9, 1940.^[5]
• In 1967, the Mystic River Bridge was renamed the Maurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge.
• An elementary school is named after Tobin in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, where he was born.^[6]
• The Psychology Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is located in Tobin Hall, a building named for Governor Tobin.

References

Further reading

• Vincent A. Lapomarda. Maurice Joseph Tobin: The Decline of Bossism in Boston. New England Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Sep., 1970)

External links

• U.S. Department of Labor Biography
• Official Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor Biography