Edward Patrick Boland (October 1, 1911 – November 4, 2001) was an American

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

from the Commonwealth of

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. A Democrat, he was a representative from Massachusetts's 2nd congressional district.

Early life and education

Boland's father was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

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 Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. With approximately 800 stud ...

Military service

He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Political career

He was a member of the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

from 1939 to 1940 and was the Hampden County register of deeds from 1941 to 1952. Boland was elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

as a Democrat in 1952. Congressman Boland was in office during the closing of the

Springfield Armory The Springfield Armory, more formally known as the United States Armory and Arsenal at Springfield located in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, was the primary center for the manufacture of United States military firearms from 1777 until ...

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 Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

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 Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

after the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

had supervised acts of sabotage without notifying

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. Boland lived in a Washington apartment with fellow Massachusetts Congressman Tip O'Neill (whose wife remained in Massachusetts) until 1977. Boland announced in April 1988 that he would not run for a 19th term later that year; he never lost an election in 50 years as an elected official. Earlier, he'd tipped off Springfield mayor

Richard Neal Richard Edmund Neal (born February 14, 1949) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 1989. The district, numbered as the 2nd district from 1989 to 2013, includes Springfield, West Springfield, Pittsfield, H ...

about his pending retirement, allowing Neal to get a significant head start in fundraising.Duncan, Philip D., and Nutting, Brian (eds.) (1999). "Neal, Richard E., D-Mass." '' CQ's Politics in America 2000: The 106th Congress''. Washington:

Congressional Quarterly Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combined ...

. pp. 488–489. . Neal would be unopposed for the Democratic nomination–the real contest in this heavily Democratic district–and has held this seat, now numbered as the 1st district, ever since.

Personal life & death

Boland married at the age of 62, fathering four children. Boland died in 2001 at the age of 90 from natural causes.

References

External links