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Higher Office(s) Served: Representative

Military Service: Navy

War(s) Served:  World War II

FOSTER J. FURCOLO, the sixty-second governor of Massachusetts, was born in New Haven, Connecticut on July 29, 1911. His education was attained at Yale University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1933, and his law degree in 1936. From 1942 to 1946, he served in the U.S. Navy.  Furcolo entered politics in 1949, serving as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, a position he held until 1952. He also served as the Massachusetts state treasurer from 1952 to 1954, and made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 1954. Furcolo secured the 1956 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and then went on to win election to the governorship. He was reelected to a second term in 1958. During his tenure, a new uniform commercial code was sanctioned; a transportation commission was organized; workmen’s compensation and unemployment benefits were raised; a regional community college program was advocated for; and state employee salaries were increased. After completing his term, Furcolo left office on January 5, 1961. He later served in 1969, as the chairman of the U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Commission on Narcotics. From 1975 to 1989, he served as the administrative law judge on the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Governor Foster J. Furcolo passed away on July 5, 1995, and was buried in the Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Sources:

Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 2, Westport, Conn.; Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.

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Biographical Directory of the US Congress

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