Matthew John "Matt" Rinaldo (September 1, 1931 – October 13, 2008) was an American Republican Party politician who represented

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

for ten terms, serving in the 12th congressional district (1973–1983) and in the 7th congressional district (1983–1993).

Early life and education

Born in

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a city and the county seat of Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New J ...

, Rinaldo graduated from St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J. in 1949, then went on to receive a B.S. from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

(1953), an M.B.A.,

Seton Hall University Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan un ...

(1959) and a D.P.A., from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service is the public policy school of New York University in New York City, New York. The school is named after New York City former mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. in 1989. History In 1938, NYU of ...

(1979).

Political career

He was elected to the Union Township Zoning Board of Adjustment (1962–1963), the Union County

Board of Chosen Freeholders In New Jersey, a Board of County Commissioners (until 2020 named the Board of Chosen Freeholders) is the elected county-wide government board in each of the state's 21 counties. In the five counties that have an elected county executive, the b ...

(1963–1964), and 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, ...

(1967–1972).

Congress

Rinaldo was elected as a Republican to the 93rd and to the nine succeeding U.S. Congresses (January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1993). Representative Rinaldo sat on the House Permanent Committee on Select Aging, as Minority Leader of the Committee, and the House Committee for Energy and Commerce. Prior to his retirement, Rinaldo listed among his top accomplishments a bill to limit the airing of commercials during children's programming and securing public access to pollution data under the

Superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...

law.

Death

He died on October 13, 2008, from complications related to

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

after several years of poor health.Rinaldo dies at 77
PolitickerNJ.com.

References

External links

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations of ...

Matthew John Rinaldo's obituary
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rinaldo, Matthew John 1931 births 2008 deaths American people of Italian descent County commissioners in New Jersey Republican Party New Jersey state senators Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service alumni Politicians from Elizabeth, New Jersey People from Union Township, Union County, New Jersey Rutgers University alumni Seton Hall University alumni Neurological disease deaths in New Jersey Deaths from Parkinson's disease Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey 20th-century American politicians