Maurice Joseph Tobin was born on May 22, 1901, in the Mission Hill section of Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Boston College before entering politics as a protégé of James Michael Curley. In 1926, he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and served from 1927 to 1929. He served on the Boston School Committee from 1931 to 1937. In 1937, he defeated Curley to be elected Mayor of Boston, and served as Mayor from 1938 to 1945, during which time he advocated the Fair Employment Practices Bill, which prohibited discrimination based on race, color, creed, and national origin in hiring or promotion practices. In 1944, he was elected Governor of Massachusetts, and served from 1945 to 1947. His administration was marked by efforts to increase the benefits of unemployment insurance and workers compensation. He is also credited with the creation of Massport.
In 1946, Tobin was defeated for re-election by his Lieutenant Governor, Robert F. Bradford. He was appointed Secretary of Labor by President Harry S. Truman and served from August 13, 1948 to January 20, 1953. While Secretary, he built the Labor Attache program. He made effective use of his Trade Union Advisory Committee for International Affairs to mobilize American unions' support in the rebuilding of war-ravaged Europe under the Marshall Plan. He consolidated most of the widely dispersed government labor functions in the Department. With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, an Executive Order made him responsible for wartime labor supply; created the Defense Manpower Administration. He died on July 19, 1953, and was interred in Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1967, the Mystic River Bridge in Boston, Massachusetts was renamed the Maurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge.
