John Patrick Higgins

John Patrick Higgins (19 February, 1893 – 2 August, 1955) was an officer in the United States Navy, chemist, attorney, and U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. John P. Higgins was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended the public schools and graduated from Harvard University in 1917. During the First World War, he served as an Ensign in the United States Navy from 1917 until 1919. Returning to civilian life, Higgins was employed as a chemist from 1919 until 1922. He then resumed his academic studies, enrolling in the Boston University Law School and Northeastern College of Law in 1925 and 1926. He was admitted to the bar in 1927 and commenced practice in Boston.

Entering politics, Higgins was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1929 through 1934. He was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth Congresses and served from January 3, 1935, until his resignation on September 30, 1937, having been appointed by Gov. Charles F. Hurley on October 1, 1937, as chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court, in which capacity he served until his death. He was suspended by Gen. Douglas MacArthur as a judge on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East at Tokyo, Japan, and resigned in June 1946.

Higgins died in Boston and was interred in St. Joseph Cemetery, West Roxbury, Massachusetts.

External links

*CongBio|H000579