Joseph D. Early

Joseph Daniel Early (1933 to 2012) was an American Democratic politician from Massachusetts who represented the state's third congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for eighteen years, from 1975 to 1993. Born in Worcester, he graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1955, served in the United States Navy from 1955 to 1957, and worked as a high school teacher and basketball coach in Shrewsbury and Spencer before entering politics. He served six terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1963 to 1974 and was a delegate to Massachusetts Democratic state conventions between 1964 and 1970. In Congress he was regarded as one of the more obscure House members, and he lost re-election in 1992 to the Republican Peter I. Blute after being implicated in the House banking scandal and in a nepotism scandal over his brother's employment in the Congressional Folding Room. His son, Joseph Early Jr., later became the Worcester County District Attorney.