Representative Edward Rowan Finnegan

Edward Rowan Finnegan (June 5, 1905 – February 2, 1971) was an attorney, judge, and Democratic politician from Illinois who served as a United States Representative from 1961 to 1965 and later as a judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County. His congressional service took place during a significant period in American history, and he contributed to the legislative process over two terms in office while representing the interests of his Illinois constituents.

Finnegan was born on June 5, 1905, in Chicago, Illinois. He was educated in the city’s parochial schools and graduated from St. Rita High School. He pursued higher education at Loyola University Chicago and later attended Northwestern University Law School. He ultimately completed his legal studies at DePaul University, from which he received an LL.B. degree in 1930. The following year, in 1931, he was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Chicago, establishing himself in the city’s legal community.

Finnegan’s early political and legal career reflected a steady progression through local public service. In 1939, he sought the Democratic nomination for municipal court judge, an effort that was unsuccessful but marked his emergence as a candidate for judicial office. In 1945, he was appointed an assistant state’s attorney for Cook County, a position he held for more than a decade, serving until 1956. He then served as an assistant city corporation counsel for Chicago from 1956 to 1957, further deepening his experience in public law and municipal affairs.

In 1960, Finnegan was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from Illinois’s 12th congressional district. He took office in January 1961, entering Congress at the outset of the John F. Kennedy administration. Following redistricting, he successfully ran for reelection in 1962 from the newly configured 9th congressional district. He chose to run in this district after incumbent Representative Sidney R. Yates sought the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate. Although Yates was unsuccessful in his Senate race against Republican incumbent Everett Dirksen, Finnegan secured his own reelection and continued to serve in the House. His tenure in Congress extended from January 1961 until his resignation in December 1964, during which time he participated in the legislative work of the House and represented his Illinois constituents during a period of major national change.

Finnegan’s 1964 reelection bid was marked by both political and personal turning points. He was renominated for the U.S. House in April 1964. Later that month, he nearly drowned while swimming at the Lake Shore Club in Chicago. A lifeguard administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation for several minutes before Finnegan regained consciousness, and he was hospitalized for several days following the incident. That same year, he reassessed his career path and determined that he preferred to serve on the bench rather than continue in Congress, while Sidney R. Yates expressed a desire to return to the House. In October 1964, Finnegan resigned his nomination for the U.S. House, and Yates was selected as his replacement on the Democratic ticket, subsequently winning the November election with ease.

Transitioning from legislator to jurist, Finnegan was nominated for a judgeship on the Circuit Court of Cook County in 1964. He won election to the court in November of that year and resigned from Congress shortly before the expiration of his term in order to assume his judicial duties. From December 1964 until his death in 1971, he served as a judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, presiding over cases in one of the nation’s largest and most active trial court systems and continuing his long record of public service within Illinois.

Finnegan’s personal life was marked by both family commitments and loss. His first wife, Katherine, with whom he had three daughters—Sara, Moira, and Kathleen—died in 1961, during his early years in Congress. In 1964, he married Iris McCreevey, who survived him. Edward Rowan Finnegan died at a hospital in Chicago on February 2, 1971, while still serving on the bench. He was interred at All Saints Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum in Des Plaines, Illinois, closing a career that spanned private legal practice, prosecutorial work, municipal service, two terms in the United States House of Representatives, and more than six years as a judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County.