Politics / Labor
Patrick V. McNamara
1894–1966 · pipefitter, union leader, U.S. senator
Detroit pipefitter and union local president who upset Senator Homer Ferguson in 1954 and served in the U.S. Senate until 1966; Detroit's federal building bears his name.
- Born
North Weymouth, Massachusetts- Died
Bethesda, Maryland
aged 71- Birth name
- Patrick Vincent McNamara
- Also known as
- Pat McNamara
- Detroit years
- 1920s–1966
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Patrick McNamara, the eldest of eight children of Irish immigrants in Massachusetts, learned pipefitting at a shipyard apprentice school and played semi-professional football before moving to Detroit around 1920 as a construction foreman. He worked as a job superintendent for local contractors, and from 1937 to 1955 was president of Pipe Fitters Local 636, also serving as vice president of the Detroit AFL. He held posts on the Detroit Common Council and school board and ran wartime rent control in the city. Given little chance in the 1954 Senate race, he won the Democratic nomination after the front-runner, Blair Moody, died, and then defeated the incumbent Republican, Homer Ferguson. In the Senate he championed labor, aging Americans and public works, chairing committees on public works and on problems of the aged, and backed the Medicare legislation that passed in 1965. He died of a stroke in 1966 and is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Detroit.
Highlights
- U.S. senator from Michigan, 1955–1966
- President of Pipe Fitters Local 636, 1937–1955
- Upset incumbent Homer Ferguson in 1954
- Namesake of the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in Detroit
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Memorial
Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building
Downtown federal office tower named after him.
Buried here · 1966
Mount Olivet Cemetery
Detroit's largest Catholic cemetery, where he is interred.