Legislative legacies: Part 2
Maurice J. Tobin’s name graces the home of the Psychology Department.
Born in Roxbury’s Mission Hill section, Tobin was the son of Irish immigrants who attended Boston College before working for Conway Leather and New England Telephone.
A protege of James Michael Curley, Tobin was elected to the state House of Representatives at the age of 25. From 1931-37, Tobin served on the Boston School Committee before breaking with his mentor and running against Curley for mayor. The political feud and Tobin’s victory were later fictionalized in Edwin O’Connor’s classic novel “The Last Hurrah.”
Like Curley, Tobin used the mayor’s office as a stepping stone to higher office. In 1944, he was elected governor, where he used the corner office to champion the Fair Employment Practices Bill, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color and national origin in hiring or promotion practices. He also advanced bills to increase unemployment and workers compensation benefits and created the Massachusetts Port Authority, commonly known as Massport.
Tobin’s term as governor coincided with the end of World War II and the passage of the G.I Bill, which funded education benefits for returning servicemen. Tobin helped push through funding for five dormitories at Massachusetts State College to provide housing for married veterans. Three of those “County Circle” buildings – Berkshire, Hampshire and Middlesex houses – still stand.
With the state’s higher education institutions facing a huge influx of veterans, Tobin convened an exploratory committee of educational leaders and officials to create a temporary branch of Massachusetts State College at Fort Devens in Ayer. The temporary campus, which focused on providing two years of basic instruction in the arts and sciences, proved to be an enormous success and provided additional momentum for the creation of the University of Massachusetts in 1947.
Tobin lost his bid for reelection, but remained active in Democratic politics and campaigned for Harry S. Truman in 1948. After Truman prevailed in the famous race against Thomas Dewey, he appointed Tobin to be secretary of labor, where he served until January 1953. Six months later while vacationing at his summer home in Scituate, Tobin died of a heart attack.
In 1967, the double-decker Mystic River Bridge linking Chelsea with Charlestown was renamed in honor of Tobin. A statue of Tobin stands on the Charles River Esplanade in Boston.
Edwin D. (Pat) Gorman was a Democratic state representative from Holyoke and a close friend and ally of Speaker John Thompson.
A lifelong resident of Holyoke, Gorman went to the Legislature in 1950 and served on the House Rules Committee and Committee on Taxation. He was in his 11th year as a legislator when he died suddenly on July 21, 1961 at the age of 48. Gorman had a history of health problems and had been released from the hospital a day earlier.
In 1962, the University’s Board of Trustees acknowledged Gorman’s support by voting to name a new dormitory in his honor.
In the Sylvan Residential Area, another residence hall is named for Harry Dunlap Brown, who graduated from MAC in 1914.
A resident of Lowell, Brown served as an infantry captain with the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War I, earning a Silver Star, Purple Heart with Oak Leaf and the Distinguished Service Award.
After the war, he ran a large apple and peach farm in Billerica, where he also held several town posts. In 1929, he was elected to the House of Representatives, where he served until 1934. In 1940, he joined the state Department of Public Utilities as assistant director of the Commercial Motor Vehicle Division. After retiring from the DPU in 1961, he moved to Chatham, where he was head of the Chamber of Commerce.
Like his contemporary, Philip Whitmore, Brown was an ardent supporter of his alma mater, leading the Associate Alumni and holding a seat on the Board of Trustees from 1940 to early 1969. He was also director and clerk of the University of Massachusetts Building Association and a member of the Board of Governors of the University of Massachusetts Foundation. In 1964, in recognition of his long service to the University, he was awarded an honorary doctor of law degrees.
Brown died in July 1969 at the age of 77.
The last stop on the campus legislative tour is Southwest, the site of John Quincy Adams Tower.
Adams, the sixth president of the United States, had one of the most storied and varied political careers of any American. After graduating from Harvard in 1787, he served as the U.S. minister to the Netherlands, Portugal and Prussia, and negotiated a trade agreement with Sweden.
In 1802, he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate. That same year, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives, but then won a seat in the U.S. Senate as a Federalist. After breaking with the Federalists, he resigned in 1808.
From 1809-14, he was minister to Russia, then served on the commission that negotiated the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. He then served as minister to Great Britain from 1815-17, when he returned home to become secretary of state for eight years under President Madison. In 1824, he was elected president by the House of Representatives after he and Andrew Jackson failed to secure enough electoral votes in the states. After leaving office and returning home to Quincy, he was elected in 1830 to Congress as a Republican. In 1834, he became a Whig, ran unsuccessfully for governor, but retained his seat in the House, serving until his death in the U.S. Capitol in 1848.
More Information
Maurice J. Tobin
March 18, 2005.
E-mail story to a friend
Printer-friendly version
/more looking back/
