Denis Joseph DRISCOLL, Congress, PA (1871-1958)

DRISCOLL, Denis Joseph, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in North Lawrence, St. Lawrence County, N.Y., March 27, 1871; attended the public schools, Lawrenceville (N.Y.) Academy, and State Teachers’ College, Potsdam, N.Y.; taught school in Potsdam, N.Y., in 1888 and 1889 and in St. Marys, Elk County, Pa., in 1890 and 1891; principal of public schools, St. Marys, 1892-1897; studied law; was admitted to the bar on April 22, 1898, and on the same day enlisted as a private in the Sixteenth Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard, which on that day had been called for service in the Spanish-American War; after the war commenced the practice of law in St. Marys; member of the Democratic State committee 1899-1922, serving as chairman in 1905; chief burgess of St. Marys 1903-1906; president of St. Marys School Board 1911-1936; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1916 and 1920; United States attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania in 1920 and 1921; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fourth Congress (January 3, 1935-January 3, 1937); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1936 to the Seventy-fifth Congress; appointed chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission for a ten-year term on April 1, 1937, from which position he resigned to accept an appointment on March 2, 1940, by the United States Court for the Southern District of New York, as one of two trustees in the reorganization of the bankrupt Associated Gas and Electric Corporation, and served until August 1946; died in St. Marys, Pa., January 18, 1958; interment in St. Marys Catholic Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present