Robert Lawrence Moran | |
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President of the New York City Board of Aldermen | |
In office January 1, 1919 – December 31, 1919 |
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Preceded by | Alfred E. Smith |
Succeeded by | Fiorello H. LaGuardia |
Bronx County Clerk | |
In office January 3, 1920 – December 31, 1929 |
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Preceded by | Joseph M. Callahan |
Succeeded by | Lester W. Patterson |
Sheriff of Bronx County | |
In office January 1, 1930 – December 31, 1933 |
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Preceded by | Lester W. Patterson |
Succeeded by | John J. Hanley |
Bronx Commissioner of Public Works | |
In office January 1, 1934 – May 9, 1942 |
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Preceded by | William J. Flynn |
Succeeded by | Arthur V. Sheridan |
Personal details | |
Born |
Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S. |
October 3, 1884
Died | August 19, 1954 The Bronx, New York |
(aged 69)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Eileen Kelly |
Religion | Roman Catholic |
Robert Lawrence Moran (October 3, 1884 – August 19, 1954), was a Bronx politician who served as President of the Board of Aldermen of New York City from 1918 to 1920, filling a vacancy after Alfred E. Smith was elected Governor of New York. Nominated by the Democratic Party to succeed himself as board president, Moran faced Republican Representative Fiorello H. La Guardia in the election of 1919, losing by a plurality of 1,363 votes. Moran has the distinction of being the only citizen of The Bronx to ever exercise the authority of mayor of New York City, even though this honor came to him only in his capacity as acting mayor during Mayor Hylan's absences from the city.
Moran was born on October 3, 1884 in Manhattan on East Twentieth Street. He was the second of six children born to Eugene (b. 1856) and Delia Moran (formerly Fitzpatrick, b. 1860 in Brooklyn). His father, a native of Greenwich Village, was a member of the New York Parks Police Department, 21st Precinct, where he began as a gatekeeper in 1879, and was subsequently promoted to park-keeper on June 9, 1886 and to roundsman the following year. He retired as a sergeant on pension in March 1912, dying not long afterward during the typhoid epidemic of 1912.
Robert Moran was raised in the Gashouse District and educated in the public schools of his native city. After his father's death, the family moved to 1486 St. Lawrence Street in The Bronx. The family later moved to 1565 Leland Avenue in The Bronx, where Moran resided until his death in 1954. As a young man, he attended P.S. 100 before leaving to take a factory job. He took real estate courses at the Young Men's Christian Association and attended night school at New York University for two years. Moran entered the real estate business in The Bronx and among the many operations with which he was connected was the construction of the Theodore Roosevelt Apartments on the Grand Concourse.