John A. Volpe

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John A. Volpe bigraphy, stories - American diplomat

John A. Volpe : biography

December 8, 1908 – November 11, 1994

John Anthony Volpe ( December 8, 1908 – November 11, 1994) was the 61st and 63rd Governor of Massachusetts and a U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

Ambassador

In 1973, Volpe was nominated by President Nixon and confirmed by the United States Senate as United States Ambassador to Italy, a position he held until 1977.

Early life and education

Volpe was born in 1908 in Wakefield, Massachusetts."John Volpe, The Life of An Immigrant’s Son", Kathleen Kilgore, Yankee Books, 1987, pages 19-20 He was the son of Italian immigrants Vito and Filomena (Benedetto), who had come from Abruzzo to Boston’s North End in 1905; his father was in the construction business. On June 18, 1934, Volpe married Jennie Benedetto, with whom he had two children, John, Jr. and Jean (m. Rotondi).

Volpe attended the Wentworth Institute (later known as the Wentworth Institute of Technology) in Boston where he majored in architectural construction and entered the construction business, building his own firm in 1930., US Department of Transportation

During World War II, he volunteered to serve stateside as a United States Navy Seabees training officer.

Governor of Massachusetts

He was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1960, and served from 1961 to 1963, before narrowly losing reelection in 1962 to Endicott Peabody. In 1964, he ran for Governor again and won, and was re-elected in 1966 for the first four-year term in Massachusetts history.

During his administration, Governor Volpe signed legislation to ban racial imbalances in education, reorganized the state’s Board of Education, liberalized birth control laws, and increased public housing for low-income families. Governor Volpe also raised revenues by his long, and ultimately successful, fight to institute a three percent state sales tax. He served as President of the National Governors Association from 1967 to 1968.

Presidential campaign

In 1968, Governor Volpe ran unsuccessfully as a "Favorite son" candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. He was defeated in the state presidential primary by a spontaneous write-in campaign for New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. It was widely believed that he was hoping to be chosen as his party’s candidate for Vice President.

Death and legacy

Governor Volpe died in 1994, and is buried in Forest Glade Cemetery in Wakefield, Massachusetts.

The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge was named in his memory, as well as the Governor John A. Volpe Library at Wakefield High School in Wakefield.

The papers of John A. Volpe are in the Archives and Special Collections of the Northeastern University Libraries, in Boston. – Northeastern University Library

Secretary of Transportation

Following the election of Richard M. Nixon, Volpe was named Secretary of Transportation. He resigned as Governor to assume the cabinet post, and served in that position from 1969 to 1973. During his administration as Secretary of Transportation, Amtrak was created.

Early career

In 1953, he was appointed as the Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Works, and in 1956 he was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as the first administrator of the Federal Highway Administration.