Joseph M. Gaydos

Who is Joseph M. Gaydos?

Joseph Matthew Gaydos was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Gaydos was the first Slovak American to serve in the United States Congress.

Joe Gaydos was born in Braddock, Pennsylvania. His Hungarian father was born in Northern Hungary which today is Slovakia after it was annxed by Czechoslovakia following World War I and the Treaty of Trianon. He attended Duquesne University and graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 1951. He served during World War II in the Pacific theater with the United States Navy Reserve, 1944–1946. He served in the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1967 to 1968. He has served as Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Assistant Solicitor of Allegheny County, and general counsel to United Mine Workers of America, district five.

He was elected simultaneously as a Democrat to the 90th and to the 91st Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of United States Representative Elmer Holland. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1992.