Paul A. Dever

Infobox Governor
name=Paul Andrew Dever
order=58th
office= Governor of Massachusetts
term_start= January 6, 1949
term_end= January 8, 1953
lieutenant= Charles F. Sullivan
predecessor= Robert F. Bradford
successor= Christian A. Herter
birth_date= birth date|1903|1|15|mf=y
birth_place= Boston, Massachusetts
death_date= death date and age |1958|04|11|1903|01|15
death_place= Boston, Massachusetts
spouse=
religion= Roman Catholic
profession=
party= Democrat
footnotes=

Paul Andrew Dever (January 15, 1903ndash April 11, 1958) was a Democratic politician from Boston, Massachusetts.

He attended the Boston Latin School and worked as a shoe salesman and clerk to finance his legal education at Boston University. When he graduated with high honors in 1926, he also had high expectations. Just several years earlier his cousin from Woburn, Massachusetts, William E. Dever had gained national prominence as the "Mayor who cleaned up Chicago." Dever was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1928, and served from 1929 to 1935, when he was elected the youngest attorney general in the history of Massachusetts at age 31. In 1940, he challenged the popular incumbent Governor Leverett Saltonstall, coming within a small margin of creating an upset victory.

As the Second World War began, Dever enlisted in the Navy. He lost the 1946 race for lieutenant governor, but two years later he defeated incumbent governor Robert F. Bradford by a substantial margin. Governor Dever increased state aid to schools and issued an executive order to extend higher education benefits to Korean War veterans. Among his chief concerns were civil defense and resisting domestic communism. He advocated increasing old age and workers compensation insurance. He made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1952. Dever had many of his supporters on the state payroll, creating a strong political machine. However, he lost a second re-election bid by 15,000 votes against Republican and future Secretary of State Christian Herter.

The Dever administration came under fire in 1952 when the Massachusetts Federation of Taxpayers Associations found pensions for members and former members of the state legislature were increased. One of those eligible was former mayor of Boston and governor James Curley, a convicted felon. Dever gave in to pressure groups, calling a special session of the legislature that repealed the bill. [cite news
author=
title=Wrath in Massachusetts
date=1952-09-15
work=Time Magazine
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,816937,00.html
accessdate=2008-08-05] [cite news
author=
title=KEY STATE--MASSACHUSETTS
date=1952-09-29
work=Time Magazine
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,935732,00.html
accessdate=2008-08-05]

Governor Dever died in 1958 and was buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery in the West Roxbury section of the city of Boston, Massachusetts.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.mass.gov/statehouse/massgovs/pdever.htm Official Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor Biography]

There is a mental institution in Taunton, Massachusetts named after Paul A. Dever. It will be used in the Martin Scorsese movie Shutter Island.