John E. Kerrigan
John E. Kerrigan was the acting Mayor of Boston in 1945 after then-Mayor Maurice J. Tobin became Governor of Massachusetts.Biography
Kerrigan was born on October 1, 1908, and was a graduate of South Boston High School. He began serving on the Boston City Council in 1933. He was council president in 1938, 1944, and 1945. He also served one term in the Massachusetts Senate, 1939–1941.
As president of the Council in 1945, Kerrigan became acting Mayor of Boston upon the inauguration of Maurice J. Tobin, who had been mayor since 1938, as governor. Initially with limited authority, Kerrigan was given full mayoral powers by the Massachusetts legislature on January 25, 1945. He was defeated in the November 1945 mayoral election by James Michael Curley. Kerrigan served as acting mayor into January 1946, until Curley was inaugurated.
Kerrigan retired from the City Council in 1973, having served a total of 15 terms, non-consecutively. He died on May 2, 1987, of cardiac arrest at Boston City Hospital. He had never married.
