John W. Sears

Who was John W. Sears?

John Winthrop Sears was an American lawyer, historian and politician. His great-great-grandfather was David Sears II. He is the grandson of seven time National tennis champion Richard Dudley Sears and the first cousin once removed of Eleonora Sears. Sears is an alumnus of St. Mark's School, Harvard College during which he spent a year as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and Harvard Law School.

He served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1965–1968, Sheriff of Suffolk County, Massachusetts from 1968-1969. He was Metropolitan District Commissioner from 1970–1975, He was Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party from 1975-1976. He ran for municipal office and served as a Boston City Councilor from 1980-1981. He was a candidate for Mayor of Boston in 1967, Secretary of the Commonwealth in 1978. He was the Republican candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1982. Sears received one vote for the Vice Presidential nomination at the 1976 Republican National Convention.

In 2012 the longtime party activist defined himself as "an old-fashioned, center-fielding Republican." He died after collapsing at his home in Boston on November 4, 2014.