James Michael Curley

James Curley
53rd Governor of Massachusetts
In office January 3, 1935 – January 7, 1937
Lieutenant	Bobby L. Hurley
Preceded by	Joseph B. Ely
Succeeded by	Charles F. Hurley
Mayor of Boston
In office January 7, 1946 – January 2, 1950
Preceded by	John E. Kerrigan (acting)
Succeeded by	John Hynes
In office January 6, 1930 – January 1, 1934
Preceded by	Malcolm Nichols
Succeeded by	Frederick Mansfield
In office February 6, 1922 – January 4, 1926
Preceded by	Andrew James Peters
Succeeded by	Malcolm Nichols
In office February 2, 1914 – February 4, 1918
Preceded by	John F. Fitzgerald
Succeeded by	Andrew James Peters
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts
In office January 3, 1943 – January 3, 1947
Preceded by	Thomas A. Flaherty
Succeeded by	John F. Kennedy
Constituency	11th district
In office March 4, 1911 – February 4, 1914
Preceded by	Joseph F. O'Connell
Succeeded by	James A. Gallivan
Constituency	10th district (1911–1913) 12th district (1913–1914)
2nd President of the United States Conference of Mayors
In office 1933
Preceded by	Frank Murphy
Succeeded by	T. Semmes Walmsley
Acting Chairman of the Boston Board of Aldermen
In office 1909
Preceded by	Louis M. Clark
Succeeded by	Frederick J. Brand
Member of the Boston Board of Aldermen
In office 1905–1909
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 4th Suffolk district
In office 1902–1903
Member of the Boston Common Council
In office 1901
Personal details
Born	(1874-11-20)November 20, 1874 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	November 12, 1958(1958-11-12) (aged 83) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Mary Herlihy ​ ​ (m. 1906; died 1930)​ Gertrude Casey ​ (m. 1937)​
Children	9 children 2 stepsons

James Michael Curley (November 20, 1874 – November 12, 1958) was an American Democratic politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He served four terms as mayor of Boston from 1914 to 1955. Curley ran for mayor in every election for which he was legally qualified. He was twice convicted of criminal behavior and notably served time in prison during his last term as mayor. He also served a single term as governor of Massachusetts. He is remembered as one of the most colorful figures in Massachusetts politics.

Curley also served two terms, separated by 30 years, in the United States House of Representatives and, in his early career, served in the Boston Common Council, Boston Board of Aldermen, and Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Curley was immensely popular with his fellow working class Roman Catholic Irish Americans. During the Great Depression in the United States, he enlarged Boston City Hospital, expanded the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, funded projects to improve roads and bridges, and improved the neighborhoods with beaches and bathhouses, playgrounds and parks, public schools, and libraries, all the while collecting graft and raising taxes.

He was a leading and at times divisive force in the Massachusetts Democratic Party, challenging Boston's ward bosses and the party's white Anglo-Saxon Protestant leadership at the local and state levels. His political tactics, which tended to drive businesses and economically successful people from the city, damaging the local economy, have become an object of study for economists and political scientists.^[1] A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the University of Illinois at Chicago ranked Curley as the fourth-worst American big-city mayor to have served between the years 1820 and 1993.^[2]