Thomas P. O'Neill Jr.

A Representative from Massachusetts. Born in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Mass. , December 9, 1912. Graduated from St. John's High School, 1931. Graduated from Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Mass. , 1936. Insurance agent. Realtor. Member of the Massachusetts state house of representatives, 1936-1952, and speaker, 1949-1952. Member of school committee, Cambridge, Mass. , 1946-1947. Elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-third and to the sixteen succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1953-January 3, 1987). Chair, Select Committee on Campaign Expenditures (Eighty-ninth through Ninety-second Congresses). Majority whip (Ninety-second Congress), majority leader (Ninety-third and Ninety-fourth Congresses), Speaker of the House (Ninety-fifth through Ninety-ninth Congresses). Was not a candidate for reelection in 1986. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush, 1991. Died on January 5, 1994, in Boston, Mass. Interment in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Harwichport, Mass.