John Frederick Collins was an American lawyer who served as the mayor of Boston from 1960 to 1968. Collins was a lawyer who served in the Massachusetts Legislature from 1947 to 1955. He and his children caught polio during a 1955 outbreak. He was reliant on a wheelchair and crutches the rest of his life. After partially recovering, he ran for mayor in 1959 as an underdog. He successfully portrayed himself as outside corrupt "machine politics" and was elected.
Portrait of Collins in the 1960s
Collins with Massachusetts U.S. Senator Leverett Saltonstall (1945–1967). In 1966, Collins ran to succeed Saltonstall when Saltonstall retired but lost in the Democratic primary to former Massachusetts Governor Endicott Peabody (who in turn lost to Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke).
Collins with Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth Kevin White (1961–1967). White would succeed Collins following the 1967 mayoral election.
Collins speaking at the groundbreaking of Boston City Hall in 1963.
The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan, and elect a mayor to a four-year term; there are no term limits. The mayor's office is in Boston City Hall, in Government Center.
Mayor of Boston
Image: John Phillips by William Hoogland 5210004 015 001 (3x 4a)
Image: Josiah Quincy 5210004 015 002 (3x 4a)
Image: Harrison Gray Otis by Chester Harding, 1833, oil on canvas, from the National Portrait Gallery NPG 7700056A 2 (1)
