John J. Degnan (born October 6, 1944) was the

Attorney General of New Jersey The attorney general of New Jersey is a member of the executive cabinet of the state and oversees the Department of Law and Public Safety. The office is appointed by the governor of New Jersey, confirmed by the New Jersey Senate, and term limited. ...

from 1978 until 1981. He was vice chairman and chief operating officer of The Chubb Corporation until 2010, and Chairman of the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorized ...

(PANYNJ) from 2014 to 2017.

Background

Degnan attended Our Lady of Lourdes Grammar School in West Orange and

Saint Benedict's Preparatory School St. Benedict's Preparatory School is a Catholic college preparatory school in Newark, New Jersey run by the Benedictines. The school serves boys and girls in kindergarten through twelfth grade on a urban campus. The school has been accredite ...

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

Saint Vincent College Saint Vincent College is a private Benedictine college in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846 by Boniface Wimmer, a monk from Bavaria, it is operated by the Benedictine monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey, the first Benedictine monastery in the ...

Latrobe, Pennsylvania Latrobe is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States and part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The city population was 8,338 as of the 2010 census (9,265 in 1990). It is located near Pennsylvania's scenic Chestnut Rid ...

in 1966 and then attended

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, receiving his J.D. degree in 1969.Official biodata
Office of the

; accessed June 26, 2008. He resides with his wife Mary in

Chester Township, New Jersey Chester Township is a township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 7,838, reflecting an increase of 556 (+7.6%) from the 7,282 counted in the 2000 Census, which had ...

Career

From 1969 to 1971, Degnan served as law secretary to John J. Francis, associate justice of the

New Jersey Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases challenging the ...

. He then joined the Newark law firm of Clapp & Eisenberg from 1971 to 1974. Degnan was selected by

New Jersey Governor The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official res ...

Brendan Byrne Brendan Thomas Byrne (April 1, 1924 – January 4, 2018) was an American politician, statesman, and prosecutor, serving as the 47th governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrne started his career as a privat ...

as assistant counsel in November 1974. He later served as Governor Byrne's executive secretary from March 1976 to March 1977, when he became special counsel to the Governor. After Byrne was elected to a second term, he announced Degnan's appointment as Attorney General. His nomination was confirmed in January 1978, and at 33 he was among the youngest ever to serve as Attorney General. In 1981, Degnan resigned his position as Attorney General to run in the Democratic primary for Governor. The crowded field of 13 Democratic candidates included U.S. Representative

James Florio James Joseph Florio (August 29, 1937 – September 25, 2022) was an American politician who served as the 49th governor of New Jersey from 1990 to 1994. He was previously the U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 1st congressional district from 19 ...

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

Mayor

Kenneth A. Gibson Kenneth Allen Gibson (May 15, 1932 – March 29, 2019) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the 36th mayor of Newark, New Jersey, from 1970 to 1986. He was the first African American elected mayor of any major city in the ...

New Jersey Senate The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232, ...

President

Joseph P. Merlino Joseph P. Merlino (July 12, 1922 – October 7, 1998) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as President of the New Jersey Senate from 1978 to 1981. Early life and career Merlino was born in 1922 in Trenton, New Jersey, th ...

, U.S. Representative

Robert A. Roe Robert Aloysius Roe (February 28, 1924 – July 15, 2014) was an American Democratic Party politician who represented New Jersey in the United States House of Representatives from November 4, 1969 to January 3, 1993. Early life and education R ...

, and

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Thomas F. X. Smith Thomas Francis Xavier Smith (July 5, 1928 – May 31, 1996) was a reformist politician and author. He served as mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, from 1977 to 1981. Career Smith was affectionately known as "The Mouth That Roared" due to his outsp ...

. Degnan was seen as Byrne's hand-picked successor and received the Governor's endorsement. But in the primary election Degnan received only 11 percent of the vote, finishing in fifth place behind Florio (26 percent), Roe (16 percent), Gibson (16 percent), and Merlino (11 percent). After the election Degnan joined the firm of Shanley & Fisher as a senior partner. In 1990, he joined Chubb & Son, a subsidiary of Chubb Corp., as senior vice president and general counsel. He was elected president of Chubb Corp. in 1996 and also became president of Chubb & Son in 1998. In 2002, he became vice chairman and chief administrative officer of Chubb Corp. He added the titles of chief ethics and legal compliance officer in 2005. In June 2008, was promoted to vice chairman and chief operating officer of Chubb Corp before retiring in 2010.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Governor

Chris Christie Christopher James Christie (born September 6, 1962) is an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, lobbyist, and former federal prosecutor who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. Christie, who was born in Ne ...

nominated Degnan on April 29, 2014, to succeed embattled David Samson as Chairman of the

. Procedurally, the

would vote to place him on the PA Board of Commissioners, and then the Board itself would approve him as Chairman. He was confirmed by full Senate on July 10, 2014. At Senate hearings in July 2014, Degnan, in regard to the Fort Lee George Washington Bridge lane closures of September 2013 said "If the lanes were closed as an act of political retribution against the mayor of Fort Lee or any other individual and not part of a legitimate traffic study, and that seems to be validated by some of the evidence, it's an outrageous misuse of office." During his tenure as chairman he opposed dissolving the PANYNJ in its entirety, believing any changes made to the mission of agency should involve state legislatures and governors in both states. He supported 2011 toll hikes based on PANYNJ capital improvement plan but acknowledged the process to enact them as "terrible" and commissioners' non-attendance at public hearings "an insult to the public." He stated intentions to improve the agency response to

sunshine laws Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisfa ...

and

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

laws. As one of his first tasks he toured the outdated and over capacity

Port Authority Bus Terminal The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus station, bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving abo ...

to plan improvements for the facility that handles 225,000 passenger-trips per day, mostly New Jerseyeans. However, the bus terminal plans remain in limbo as of August 2017 among disagreements on how to move forward. In 2017,

Kevin J. O'Toole Kevin J. O'Toole (born October 5, 1964) is an American Republican Party politician, who served in the New Jersey Senate. O'Toole represented the 40th legislative district, which included parts of Bergen, Essex, Morris, and Passaic counties fro ...

replaced Degnan as Chair of the

References

External links

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Degnan, John J. 1944 births Living people Harvard Law School alumni New Jersey Attorneys General People from Chester Township, New Jersey People from West Orange, New Jersey Saint Vincent College alumni American chief operating officers Chairmen of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey St. Benedict's Preparatory School alumni