John A. Volpe

John Anthony Volpe ( born December 8, 1908 in Wakefield, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, † November 11, 1994 ) was an American politician.

Life

Volpe grew up as the son of Italian immigrants from Abruzzo on in Massachusetts. In 1934 he married Jennie Benedetto; they had a son and a daughter. He attended the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston and grew into a port construction. In 1930 he founded his own company. During the Second World War he supported the United States Navy, where he was as a training officer in the SeaBees, the Bautruppen the Navy operates.

1953 Volpe was appointed Officer of the Civil Service in the State of Massachusetts. Three years later, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him to head the Federal Highway Administration, an agency responsible for transportation on highways under authority of the Ministry of Transport.

Policy

As a member of the Republican Party, he was elected in 1960 as governor of Massachusetts. In 1962, he defeated Democrat Endicott Peabody that he could replace but again two years later. In 1966 he was confirmed in office; so that Volpe was the first governor in the history of the state of Massachusetts with a four- year term.

During his tenure, John Volpe brought a legislation on the way to relieve racial barriers in the field of education. He organized the state school board new, liberalized the laws on birth control and promoted public housing for low-income families. In addition, he managed to increase government revenue by raising the sales tax to three percent. From 1967 to 1968 he served as Chairman of the National Governors Association.

John Volpe, 1968 was one of the Republican candidates for the office of U.S. President, however, obtaining a delegate vote at the Republican National Convention. After the election of Richard Nixon as President of this appointed him Minister of Transport of the United States; his governorship he abdicated to his deputy Francis W. Sargent. The Department of Transportation, he headed until February 1, 1973 at this time, among other things, the parastatal transport company Amtrak has been launched. From 1973 to 1977 he finally exercised the office of the U.S. Ambassador to Italy.

Tributes

According to John Volpe, who died in 1994 and was buried in his home town of Wakefield, the Volpe Center, a transportation center in Cambridge, and the library of the High School of Wakefield are named.