Patrick J. Moynihan

Patrick J. Moynihan (1891 – 1969) was an Irish–American political and social leader who served as Massachusetts state deputy of the Knights of Columbus from 1936 to 1938 and chairman of the state Commission of Administration and Finance from 1937 to 1941.

Early life Moynihan was born in Killarney in 1891. At the 1937 Supreme Convention, Moynihan stunned delegates by nominating Deputy Supreme Knight Francis P. Matthews for Supreme Knight, but Matthews declined the nomination.

At the 1939 Supreme Convention in Seattle, Moynihan alleged that $787,124.04 had been misappropriated from mortuary funds in order to pay the salaries and expenses of supreme officers and supreme directors and called for an investigation into the order's finances. After making the allegations, Moynihan was suspended from the order by Supreme Knight Francis P. Matthews.

Government service In February 1937, Moynihan was appointed executive director of the city of Boston's welfare department. He removed three unqualified relatives of politically connected people from the city's welfare roles, but despite public pressure, refused to name the officials in order to keep his department's records confidential. In this role, Moynihan and his four fellow commissioners advised the governor on state spending. Following the 1938 New England hurricane, Moynihan chaired the state emergency relief commission. Hurley's Republican successor, Leverett Saltonstall, chose not to reappoint Moynihan and on December 29, 1941, he was succeeded by Massachusetts Senate President Angier Goodwin.

From 1955 to 1962, Moynihan was the state's chief director of bank examiners.

Moynihan died on February 1, 1969, at a nursing home in West Roxbury. His funeral mass was held at St. Theresa Church in West Roxbury and said by Bishop Jeremiah Francis Minihan. He was buried in Saint Mary's Cemetery in Needham, Massachusetts.