Marcus Daly (politics)

Marcus Daly (September 18, 1908 – July 25, 1969) was an American Republican Party politician, who served on the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders from January 2, 1963 to his death on July 25, 1968, and was a 1964 candidate for the United States House of Representatives.

Ambassador Daly was born in Long Branch, New Jersey.

He was a 1930 graduate of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He studied law at St. John's College in Brooklyn, New York and insurance at New York University. He received a Master's Degree in Political Science from Columbia University in 1949, and studied International Law at the Hague Academy of International Law. In 1961 he was awarded the title of Professor Extraordinary from the Pontifical University of Colombia. He had been on the faculty of Fordham University and was a professor of political science at St. Peter's College in Jersey City, New Jersey.

In 1958, he was nominated by President Eisenhower to be the Director General of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) as an Ambassador of the United States of America. ICEM is an organization that was dedicated to the resettlement of European World War II refugees, as well as assisting in the emigration of people who wished to settle overseas. Elected unanimously to the post by the then 28 member governments of ICEM, Daly was Director General of the organization until 1961, and he oversaw the movement of at least one million migrants to such places as Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the United States, and others. ^[1] ICEM is now known as the International Organization for Migration, the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners. With 166 member states and offices in over 100 countries, IOM is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration, international cooperation on migration issues, and assisting in the search for practical solutions to migration problems.

Daly received the Grand Croix of Merit avec Plaque and Cordon of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in 1961 for his work in international social welfare. In 1962, Pope John XXIII named Marcus Daly a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, the highest honor the papacy can bestow on a layman, for work in the international field and his dedication to human welfare. ^[2]

In 1962, Daly was awarded honorary degrees from Monmouth College and St. Peter's College as a Doctor of Letters and a Doctor of Laws, respectively.^[3]

He was a former member of the board of governors of Riverview Hospital, Red Bank. He was re-elected to the board of trustees of Monmouth College in 1968. He had served as a trustee since 1962. Daly was a member of the American International Law Association, the Catholic Association for International Peace, the American Committee for Italian Migration and the Holy Name Society.

On January 2, 1963, Marcus Daly, a Lincroft resident, was appointed to the unexpired term of Freeholder Earl L. Woolley, who had resigned due to poor health.

In 1964, he made an unsuccessful bid for the seat of retiring Rep. James C. Auchincloss against James J. Howard, the Democratic candidate. Auchincloss endorsed Daly to fill his seat after announcing in January 1964 that he would not be running for re-election.^[4] In 1968, Daly announced his candidacy for the congressional seat against Rep. Howard; he was forced to withdraw because of ill health in favor of State Senator Richard R. Stout, who was defeated.

Daly chaired the freeholders' committee on public welfare and a member of the Monmouth County Welfare Board. He was the center of a controversy in 1966 involving his proposal dealing with welfare aid to unwed mothers whereby their names would be referred to the County Prosecutor to be charged with adultery and fornication. On November 15, 1966 he appeared as a guest on the David Susskind Show.

Diagnosed with cancer in 1968, Daly died on July 25, 1969.

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