John Anthony Volpe

John Anthony Volpe was an American businessman, diplomat, and politician from Massachusetts. A son of Italian immigrants, he founded and owned a large construction firm. Politically, he was a Republican in increasingly Democratic Massachusetts, serving as its 61st and 63rd governor from 1961 to 1963 and 1965 to 1969, as the United States secretary of transportation from 1969 to 1973, and as the United States ambassador to Italy from 1973 to 1977. As Secretary of Transportation, Volpe was an important figure in the development of the Interstate Highway System at the federal level.