Joseph Phillip Vigorito (November 10, 1918 – February 5, 2003) was a Democratic member of the

U.S. 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 chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

for

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

from 1965 to 1977.

Early life and education

Joe Vigorito was born in

Niles, Ohio Niles is a city in southern Trumbull County, Ohio, United States, situated at the confluence of the Mahoning River and Mosquito Creek. The city's population was 18,443 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan a ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

immigrants. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

from 1942 to 1945 and was awarded the

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

. After serving in the military, he graduated in 1947 from the

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

of Finance at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

and received an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

in 1949. He was a member of the faculty at Penn State in

State College, Pennsylvania State College is a home rule municipality in Centre County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is a college town, dominated economically, culturally and demographically by the presence of the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania Sta ...

, from 1949 to 1964.

Congress

In 1964, Vigorito was elected to Congress from a district based in

Erie Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

as part of the gigantic Democratic landslide of that year. He was reelected five more times before being defeated in 1976 by Mercer County Solicitor

Marc L. Marks Marc Lincoln Marks (February 12, 1927 – February 28, 2018) was a former Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Marks served in the United States Army Air Corps from 1945 to 1946. He graduated from the University of Al ...

. During his time in office,

Nina Totenberg Nina Totenberg (born January 14, 1944) is an American legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) focusing primarily on the activities and politics of the Supreme Court of the United States. Her reports air regularly on NPR's new ...

named Vigorito one of the ten dumbest members of Congress.

Later career and death

After his time in Congress, he served on the faculty of

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, from 1977 through 1978. He tried to regain his seat in 1978, but was defeated by Marks. Vigorito was only the third Democrat to represent the Erie area in the 20th century. Since his loss, one Democrat, Kathy Dahlkemper, represented Erie County for one term from 2009 to 2011. He died in Washington, D.C. in 2003.

References

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vigorito, Joseph 1918 births 2003 deaths 20th-century American politicians American accountants United States Army personnel of World War II American people of Italian descent Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Georgetown University faculty Military personnel from Ohio Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania Military personnel from Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State University faculty People from Niles, Ohio Politicians from Erie, Pennsylvania United States Army soldiers University of Denver alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni