Matthew J. Connelly

Matthew J. Connelly (November 19, 1907 – July 10, 1976) was an American civil servant. He served as executive secretary to Vice President Harry S. Truman and later appointments secretary in the Truman Administration. In 1955, he was indicted for bribery, whereupon he was convicted the following year. He served six months in prison in 1960 and was granted a full pardon by President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

Career In 1930, he graduated from Fordham University and began his career as a stockbroker in New York City. Spingarn further recalled: There was an operation run, more or less, under the supervision of Max Lowenthal in the basement of the White House which was to prepare answers to the charges that McCarthy was hurling so freely during all that period and get them ready in a hurry, not wait until the lie had gone around the world before the truth has gotten its pants on. I remember Herb Maletz—good man—worked in that thing and one or two others whose names I can't remember at the moment. Max Lowenthal was very much involved in that, and in his book The Truman Presidency, Cabell Phillips has me teamed up with Max Lowenthal in running that operation, which is not correct. I did an awful lot of work on the McCarthy stuff, but I did it in terms of trying to devise some machinery, or system, or operation. He lived in Cicero, Illinois. Connelly died age 68 on July 10, 1976, in Oak Park, Illinois, at Rust Suburban Hospital from cancer.