G. Joseph Tauro

Who was G. Joseph Tauro?

G. Joseph Tauro was the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1970 to 1976.

Tauro was born in Lynn, Massachusetts to an Italian immigrant cobbler and his wife. He graduated from Lynn public schools and attended Boston University's College of Business Administration for a year before switching to its law school. He received his law degree in 1927. Admitted to the bar that year, he practiced in Lynn until 1961, when he became an associate Superior Court justice.

Tauro's 1961 appointment was made by his longtime friend and business associate, Governor John A. Volpe. A practicing attorney in Lynn, Tauro had for many years been general counsel and a director for Volpe Construction Co. At the time of his appointment to a judgeship, he was the newly elected governor's legal counsel at the State House. The next year, Judge Tauro became chief justice of the Superior Court.

A short, compact man with dark brown eyes, a brush mustache, and wavy, snow white hair, he was noted during his years on the bench for his competence, courtesy, diligence, and preparation.

Aware of the caseloads crushing Supreme Judicial Court justices, he had advocated establishment of an intermediate appellate court to permit the high court to concentrate on cases of broad social impact. Within two years of his 1970 appointment by Governor Francis W. Sargent to the position of Chief Justice, Judge Tauro brought the project to fruition and the Appeals Court was established. He also worked to modernize state civil law and he wrote many decisions now considered landmarks in a variety of fields - contracts, torts, real property, corporations, governmental regulations and environmental protection.