Thomas Phillip O'Neill III (born September 20, 1944) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 65th

Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts The lieutenant governor of Massachusetts is the first in the line to discharge the powers and duties of the office of governor following the incapacitation of the Governor of Massachusetts. The constitutional honorific title for the office is His ...

Early life and education

Born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, he is the son of Mildred Anne Miller and Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill Jr., who served as

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U. ...

from 1977 to 1987. O'Neill received his bachelor's degree from Boston College and earned his

Master of Public Administration The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

’s

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

Career

Prior to becoming lieutenant governor, O’Neill served as a member of the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

from 1973 to 1974. From 1975 to 1983, O'Neill served as Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. During his term of office, O'Neill created and administered the Office of Federal-State Relations in Boston and

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, ...

During this time he also served on the U.S. State Department Ambassadorial Screening Committee. O'Neill is known for his work on behalf of the

Big Dig The Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T Project), commonly known as the Big Dig, was a megaproject in Boston that rerouted the Central Artery of Interstate 93 (I-93), the chief highway through the heart of the city, into the 1.5-mile (2.4& ...

, a project with which his father was instrumentally involved. O'Neill declined to seek a third term in 1982 in order to run for Governor of Massachusetts, but ran afoul of the state Democratic Party's rule changes and failed to make the ballot. O'Neill sits on the Board of Trustees for

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

and chairs the Board of Trustees of Cristo Rey Boston High School, having graduated from both. He is on the board of Catholic Democrats, a national advocacy organization dealing with faith and politics. O'Neill has

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

and government affairs firm called O'Neill and Associates in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. In June 2020, the firm merged with Seven Letter, a communications firm based in

O'Neill will maintain control of the firm's lobbying practice.

References

External links

O'Neill and Associates
Massachusetts Democrats Living people Boston College alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni Lieutenant Governors of Massachusetts 1945 births {{Massachusetts-politician-stub