Brian J. Donnelly

Who is Brian J. Donnelly?

Brian Joseph Donnelly of Dorchester, Boston was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1979 to 1993. He is a Democrat.

Donnelly attended private schools in Suffolk County. He graduated from Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, in 1963. He received a Bachelor of Science from Boston University in 1970. He was a teacher and coach in the Boston public schools. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1973–1978, where he served as assistant majority leader in 1977–1978.

Donnelly was elected as a Democrat to the 96th and to the six succeeding Congresses, but was not a candidate for renomination in 1992 to the 103rd Congress.

In 1994, he was named United States Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago. He served in this capacity until 1997. In 1998, he ran for Governor of Massachusetts, finishing third in the Democratic primary behind state Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and former state Senator Patricia McGovern.