Thomas J. McIntyre (1915 - 1992)
Born and died at Laconia (NH).
Lawyer; state and national legislator.
Portrait by Richard W. Whitney
Presented to the State of New Hampshire, 1980.

Thomas J. McIntyre attended Manlius (NH) Military Academy (1927-33) after the death of his mother when he was twelve years old (1927). He graduated from Dartmouth College (1937) and received his law degree from Boston University School of Law (1940). McIntyre was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1940.

Following graduation from law school McIntyre worked in the Concord (NH) law office of former U.S. Senator Robert W. Upton (1940/41), but in 1941 he moved back to Laconia and opened his own law office. After a few months McIntyre was called up for military service, however. He participated in all of the major European military campaigns of World War Two, as a member of the Third Army.

At the end of the war Major McIntyre was made a Military Government Judge in the Lower Court ("Ahmsgericht") at Dusseldorf, Germany, but he returned to Laconia in 1946, and joined the law office of Harold E. Westcott.

In 1949 McIntyre was elected the (Democratic) mayor of Laconia (1949/51). He was asked to be a candidate for the governorship in 1950, but declined. He was active in county and state Democratic politics, however, and was a member of the Democratic Party State Committee in 1952.

In 1954 McIntyre ran as a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, but lost the general election. He was now an important force in Laconia politics, serving on the boards of First Laconia Corporation, Laconia Industrial Development Corporation, Laconia Savings Bank, McIntyre Properties and other organizations. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1962 and served three terms (1962/79). He subsequently served as counsel with Sullivan & Worcester, in both Boston and Washington, D.C.

References: James Duane Squires, The Granite State....(1956); New Hampshire Notables (1955, 1986).