Foster Furcolo - Massachusetts Governor

Massachusetts Governor

Furcolo was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1956 and re-elected in 1958, serving from 1957 to 1961. During his administration, he established a network of regional community colleges throughout the Commonwealth and fought on behalf of increased state worker's salaries, workman's compensation and unemployment benefits. He also introduced the withholding of income taxes from payroll checks, leading to a significant increase in state revenue.

Furcolo was an influential figure in the development of Boston's Government Center area as a nexus of local, federal, and state offices. He was the first to propose that a federal office building planned for the Back Bay area of the city instead become part of a major redevelopment effort in the declining Scollay Square neighborhood. The effort was primarily spearheaded by Boston Mayors John Hynes and John F. Collins, but Furcolo was a regular presence moving the Government Center proposals forward and supporting them at the state level.

In 1960, he again ran for the U.S. Senate, and was widely expected to easily gain the Democratic Party nomination. However, former Springfield mayor Thomas O'Connor capitalized on corruption scandals in the state's public works department and the Metropolitan District Commission during Furcolo's administration, and defeated him in the primary. Furcolo then returned to private law practice. After leaving office, he was indicted on charges of arranging for a bribe to be paid to members of the Massachusetts executive council; the indictment was eventually dismissed. He worked for several years as an assistant district attorney for the Northern District of Massachusetts. In 1969, he served on the U.S. Attorney General's Advisory Committee on Narcotics. He was selected as an administrative law judge with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission from 1975 to 1989.