G. Joseph Tauro

G. Joseph Tauro (January 10, 1906 — October 6, 1994) was the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1970 to 1976.

Tauro was born in Lynn to an Italian immigrant cobbler and his wife. He graduated from Lynn public schools and attended Boston University's College of Business Administration for a year before switching to its law school. He received his law degree in 1927. Admitted to the bar that year, he practiced in Lynn until 1961, when he became an associate superior court justice.

Tauro's 1961 appointment was made by his longtime friend and business associate, Governor John A. Volpe. A practicing attorney in Lynn, Tauro had for many years been general counsel and a director for Volpe Construction Co. At the time of his appointment to a judgeship, he was the newly elected governor's legal counsel at the State House. The next year Judge Tauro became chief justice of the Superior Court.

A short, compact man with dark brown eyes, a brush mustache and wavy, snow white hair, he was noted during his years on the bench for his competence, courtesy, diligence and preparation.

Aware of the caseloads crushing Supreme Judicial Court justices, he had advocated establishment of an intermediate appellate court to permit his court to concentrate on cases of broad social impact. Within two years of his appointment by Sargent, Judge Tauro brought the project to fruition and the Appeals Court was established. He also worked to modernize state civil law and he wrote many decisions now considered landmarks in a variety of fields - contracts, torts, real property, corporations, governmental regulations and environmental protection.

In 1970, Governor Francis W. Sargent named him Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. He was the first man named to the job who was not already an SJC member and he was the first Italian American and Roman Catholic to hold the position.

During his 14 years on the bench he made more than one landmark decision. In one case he held that the right to life was constitutionally guaranteed, in effect, abolishing the death penalty in Massachusetts. "The state should not be in the business of taking lives," he said.

The only person to serve as chief justice of both the SJC and the Superior Court, he also became, upon his retirement in 1976, the first Chief Justice in the SJC's long history to retire at age 70 in accordance with the 98th Amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution, adopted in 1972.

A resident of Swampscott, he died at Salem Hospital. He was survived by his wife of 64 years, Helen M. ("née" Petrossi); a son, Judge Joseph L. Tauro; two brothers, Arthur L. and Raymond; and a sister, Celia Tricca.

References

*"G. Joseph Tauro, was chief justice of SJC and Superior Court; at 88"; "The Boston Globe", October 7, 1994.