Joseph Daniel McGoldrick (June 5, 1901 – April 5, 1978) was an American politician and lawyer. He was

Comptroller of New York City The Office of Comptroller of New York City, a position established in 1801, is the chief financial officer and chief auditor of the city agencies and their performance and spending. The comptroller also reviews all city contracts, handles the ...

for nearly nine years. He subsequently was New York State Residential Rent Control Commissioner, founded a law firm, and was chairman of the Department of Political Science at

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

for a decade.

Early life

McGoldrick was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He had three younger siblings, and his parents were Loretta and Daniel McGoldrick, an accountant. He graduated from

Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It was founded in 1786 as Erasmus Hall Ac ...

. McGoldrick then attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, graduating in 1922 with an A.B. with honors in History and Greek. He was then an instructor in government at Columbia. He received a law degree from

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

in 1929. He was granted a Ph.D. from Columbia in 1931.

Career

McGoldrick in 1934 became deputy to

W. Arthur Cunningham. Cunningham died, and McGoldrick was appointed by Mayor La Guardia to take his place. McGoldrick later ran in a

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-larges ...

, and lost. But when La Guardia ran for a second term in 1937, McGoldrick joined him in office as Comptroller, and the same happened four years later. After serving as comptroller, he became the New York State Residential Rent Control Commissioner in 1946. In 1948, he founded the law firm of McGoldrick, Dannett, Horowitz & Golub. In 1958, he joined the

faculty, where he spent a decade as chairman of the Department of Political Science. McGoldrick was the author of ''The Law and Practice of Municipal Home Rule 1916‐1930'' and ''Building Regulation in New York City'', and co‐author with R. E. and M. P. Keohane of ''Government in Action''. He died of cancer on April 5, 1978, in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

. As of 2019, he was the last Republican to have served as Comptroller of New York City.

References

External links

*Joseph D. McGoldrick (November 1, 1945)
"City Building and Renewal"
AAPSS, Volume 242, issue 1, pages 96-100. {{DEFAULTSORT:McGoldrick, Joseph 1901 births 20th-century American politicians Columbia College (New York) alumni Fordham University alumni New York (state) Republicans New York City Comptrollers 20th-century American lawyers Politicians from Brooklyn Lawyers from Brooklyn Queens College, City University of New York faculty Deaths from cancer in Georgia (U.S. state) 1978 deaths Erasmus Hall High School alumni