John Joseph Moakley (April 27, 1927 - May 28, 2001) was a Democratic congressman from the Ninth District of Massachusetts. Moakley was the last Democrat to chair the U.S. House Committee on Rules. Mr. Moakley was born in Boston, Massachusetts, April 27, 1927. He attended University of Miami in Miami, Florida, 1950-1951, and received his LL.B. at Suffolk University Law School, in Boston in 1956. He served in the United States Navy, 1943-1946 and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1957. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1953 to 1963 and a member of the Massachusetts Senate from 1964 to 1970. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1968. He was a Boston City Councilor from 1971 to 1973, and an unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States House of Representatives in 1970. He was elected as an Independent-Democrat to the Ninety-third Congress in 1972, but changed party affiliation to Democrat on January 2, 1973. He was reelected as a Democrat to the fourteen succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1973 to May 28, 2001).
