Boland, Edward P., 1911-2001

<p>Edward Patrick "Ed" Boland (October 1, 1911 – November 4, 2001) was an American politician from the state of Massachusetts. A Democrat, he was a representative from Massachusetts's 2nd congressional district.</p>
<p>Boland's father was an Irish immigrant railroad worker. Boland was born in Springfield, Massachusetts and graduated from Springfield Central High School in 1928. He attended Bay Path Institute and Boston College Law School. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1939 to 1940 and was the Hampden County register of deeds from 1941 to 1952. He also served in the United States Army during World War II.</p> <p>Boland was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1952. Congressman Boland was in office during the closing of the Springfield Armory in 1968, and was harshly criticized for his inability to prevent its closure. This failure resulted in a challenge to Boland in 1968 by Springfield Mayor Charles V. Ryan. Boland was re-elected handily with significant help from the family of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy in what was to be the last challenge to Boland by a major contender. Boland's most famous work as a congressman was the 1982 Boland Amendment, which blocked certain funding of the Contras in Nicaragua after the Central Intelligence Agency had supervised acts of sabotage without notifying Congress.</p> <p>Boland lived in a Washington apartment with fellow Massachusetts Congressman Tip O'Neill (whose wife remained in Massachusetts) until 1977. Boland married at the age of 62, fathering four children. Boland retired from the House in 1989. Boland died in 2001 at the age of 90 from natural causes.</p>

BOLAND, EDWARD PATRICK, a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Springfield, Hampden County, Mass., October 1, 1911; graduated from Central High School, Springfield, Mass., 1928; attended Bay Path Institute, Longmeadow, Mass.; attended Boston College Law School, Boston, Mass.; United States Army, 1942-1946; member of the Massachusetts state house of representatives, 1934-1940; register of deeds for Hampden County, Mass., 1941-1952; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-third and to the seventeen succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1953-January 3, 1989); chairman, Select Committee on Intelligence (Ninety-fifth through Ninety-eighth Congresses); was not a candidate for renomination to the One Hundred First Congress in 1988; died on November 4, 2001, in Springfield, Mass.; interment in St. Michael's Cemetery, Springfield, Mass.

<p>Edward P. Boland, the former Massachusetts congressman who sponsored legislation to curb Reagan administration aid for rebels opposing Nicaragua’s Marxist-led government, has died. He was 90.</p> <p>The low-key Boland, who never lost an election and served in Congress for 36 years, died Sunday in Mercy Medical Center in his native Springfield, Mass. He had been hospitalized since Oct. 11 with a fractured hip and died of cardiovascular complications.</p> <p> First passed in 1982, the Boland amendments initially barred military aid to the Contras by the Pentagon or the CIA “for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua or provoking a military exchange between Nicaragua and Honduras.” A second version in 1983 capped financial aid at $24 million. A third version, which ended in 1986 as aid resumed, banned all funds for military operations in Nicaragua. “I don’t like confrontation,” Boland told the Boston Globe in 1983, “but I don’t think our government ought to be involved in the process of overthrowing . . . or destabilizing governments.”,</p> <p> Boland also rose to be vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and chaired its independent agencies subcommittee. For 24 years--from their arrival on Capitol Hill until O’Neill became speaker in 1977--Boland and O’Neill shared a workweek apartment in Washington, returning on weekends to their Massachusetts districts. They called themselves the “odd couple,” with the neat, trim, reserved and tidy Boland as the Felix Unger of the pair who did the laundry and kept the place clean. Boland always said the two never had an argument--and never shared a meal in the bachelor quarters. O’Neill said Boland brought his coffeepot to Washington but that their refrigerator held nothing more than orange juice, diet soda, beer and cigars. </p> <p> Edward Patrick Boland, the son of an Irish immigrant railroad worker, grew up in Springfield’s “Hungry Hill” working-class neighborhood. He attended the Bay Path Institute business school there and then Boston College Law School.He was elected to the State Legislature when he was only 23. He served six years in the state Legislature, meeting O’Neill when the future speaker was elected during that period, and then won election as Hampden County register of deeds. In 1942, Boland joined the Army as a private and spent much of World War II in the Pacific theater, rising to the rank of captain. After the war, he returned to his job as register of deeds, winning reelection. When a congressional seat opened up in 1952, Boland went to Washington.</p> <p> He was a staunch ally of the Kennedy political dynasty in Massachusetts, serving as John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign manager for Ohio in 1960 and nominating Edward M. Kennedy for his first try for the Senate at the 1962 Massachusetts Democratic Convention.</p> <p> A lifelong supporter of civil rights and liberal causes, Boland marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in the landmark civil rights protest in Selma, Ala., in 1965.</p> <p> Respected by colleagues for his intellect, fairness and quiet but thorough work habits, Boland was unlike most politicians. He kept up his constituent contacts, but in 36 years granted few interviews, mailed only two newsletters and held a single news conference--that was in 1988 to announce he would not seek election to a 19th term.</p> <p> In 1973, when he was 62, Boland married for the first time--Mary K. Egan, then president of the Springfield City Council and 30 years his junior. They had four children. He decided to retire from Congress, he said at his only news conference, to spend more time with them.</p>