Denis W. Delaney

Denis W. Delaney (April 13, 1896 – February 13, 1968), also known as Denie, was an American government official, civic leader, World War I veteran, and entertainer from Lawrence, Essex County, Massachusetts.

He served as the state administrator of the Works Progress Administration in Massachusetts following his appointment during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In this role, he oversaw a large workforce engaged in public works projects. He later served as Collector of Internal Revenue for the District of Massachusetts.

Early life and education

Delaney was born on April 13, 1896, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the son of Martin J. Delaney and Ellen Cahill Delaney. He attended St. Mary's and the Packard schools before graduating from Lawrence High School, where he served as class president all four years, captained the track team, and earned letters in football and basketball. thumb Delaney as track team captain, Lawrence High School, circa 1912-1913He was a member of the 1914 Lawrence High School football team that defeated rival Lowell 20 to 0 on Thanksgiving Day. After his first year at Lawrence High School, financial difficulties at home forced him to leave school temporarily. He worked at the Pacific Mills in Lawrence for two years before returning to complete his education. He enrolled at Boston College after graduation but left to enlist in the Army at the outset of World War I.

World War I

Delaney enlisted as a private and was assigned to the 19th Company, 5th Battalion, 151st Depot Brigade at Camp Devens, Massachusetts. He rose through the ranks to corporal, sergeant, and first sergeant. He served with the 69th New York Infantry of the 42nd Rainbow Division and with the 325th Infantry of the 82nd Division, taking part in major engagements including the battles of Verdun and Saint-Mihiel. He was made battalion adjutant and later served as a member of the general staff of the 82nd Division.

He was wounded on September 9, 1918, on the road leading into Thiaucourt, France, in the preliminary action preceding the Battle of Saint-Mihiel. Special Orders No. 124 dated September 21, 1918, issued by Headquarters, 103rd Infantry, 26th Division, signed by order of Colonel Berry and prepared by Captain Robert G. Watson, Personnel Adjutant, granted First Sergeant Denis W. Delaney permission to wear the wound chevron for that wound. thumb Delaney wearing his wound chevron, circa 1918-1919He was also wounded on a separate occasion and was gassed during his service. He was cited and decorated for bravery under fire, and was honorably discharged as a first lieutenant, holding a captain's commission in the reserve corps.

At the close of the war he earned an A.B. degree from the University of Bordeaux, France, and a certificate in finance from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College.

Postwar career and education

Back in Lawrence, Delaney and his brother William J. Delaney built a successful construction firm. Their projects included the Eagle Tribune Publishing Plant in Lawrence, the Lawrence and Lynn High School stadiums, Beebe Junior High School in Malden, and several apartment buildings. Characteristically, he spent his evenings continuing his education, earning a certificate in engineering from the Lowell Institute and a bachelor of laws degree from Northeastern University.

In 1933, while building a school in Winchester and another in Bedford, four Lawrence, Massachusetts banks collapsed and wiped out the resources of the business. He was 35 years old, recently married and the father of a young daughter, Patricia, born on March 15. At that time March 15 was the federal individual income tax filing deadline, a fact that was not lost on her father.

Political career

In August 1928 Delaney filed nomination papers at the State House for the Democratic nomination for State Senator from the 5th Essex District, comprising Lawrence and Methuen. The Lawrence press noted his war record, his athletic achievements at Lawrence High School, and his standing in the community. Projects included major defense infrastructure work such as airbase construction at North Chicopee, Massachusetts, projected to employ between 2,000 and 3,000 workers. During the February 1940 blizzard he negotiated federal emergency funds from Washington for snow removal to reach isolated Massachusetts families. In May 1940 he organized a statewide open house running May 20 to 25, at which Eleanor Roosevelt addressed a series of suppers on the opening evening. The WPA was liquidated in 1943 and most of its workers transitioned to war work. He often served on the committee awarding the Swede Nelson Award, and in January 1950 he was present at the award presentation to Notre Dame quarterback Bob Williams.

In 1946 he served as chairman of a two-day country fair and horse show at the Weymouth fairgrounds organized to benefit Archbishop Richard J. Cushing's charity funds, supplementing a $600,000 gift from the Joseph P. Kennedy family to build a convalescent home for sick children. A photograph from the event shows Delaney seated next to John F. Kennedy, then a newly elected Massachusetts congressman, among the committee members.

He was a member of the Elks, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the American Legion. He served for eight years as Suffolk County chairman of the March of Dimes. He also chaired at various times the Community Fund, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the Volunteers of America.

The cause closest to his heart was the Archbishop Cushing Charity Fund. He founded it personally, paid the incorporation fee out of his own pocket, and directed it almost single-handedly for years. He brought Kate Smith, Ted Mack, and Fred Waring to Boston Garden for the fund. He never asked for recognition. He did these things, as one who knew him well observed, purely for the pleasure he got out of it. Delaney was suspended by presidential order on June 27, 1951, and removed from office on July 16, 1951. A federal grand jury returned two indictments on September 14, 1951. The first charged him with receiving payments to influence his decisions as Collector. The second charged him with making false certificates of discharge of tax liens.

Delaney denied the charges. He testified that he had agreed only to refer insurance prospects to a man named Daniel Friedman, and that when commission checks from Friedman began to arrive he deposited them and reported $10,000 of the income on his 1949 tax return. A Harper's Magazine account of the case published in June 1953 reported that Delaney testified he had agreed to endorse checks through a business name at Friedman's request, believing the arrangement was connected to the insurance referral, and that Friedman deflected his questions about whom he had sold insurance to. A Lawrence Tribune article further reported that Delaney's telephone had been tapped.

While the criminal case was pending, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Administration of the Internal Revenue Laws, known as the King Committee and chaired by Representative Cecil R. King of California, opened public hearings focused on Delaney on October 16, 1951. The hearings ran through October 22, 1951. Motion pictures and sound recordings were permitted during the proceedings. Witnesses who had testified before the grand jury appeared before the committee without being subject to cross-examination by Delaney's counsel. The hearings ranged far beyond the scope of the indictments, covering matters for which Delaney had not been charged. At the close of the hearings the committee chairman made public statements about Delaney that were reported in the press before he had faced a jury.

Following the First Circuit ruling, Delaney faced a separate indictment on a new charge: willful evasion of his own federal income taxes in the amount of $2,974.45. He pleaded guilty to that charge and was sentenced to one year and one day at Danbury Federal Prison. He served eight months.

Death

Denis W. Delaney died on February 13, 1968. He was 71 years old. Obituaries appeared in the Lawrence Tribune, the Boston Globe, and the Lowell Sun, and his passing was noted in several other Massachusetts newspapers that day.