Background
Denis J. Driscoll was born in North Lawrence, New New York
lawyer politician representative teacher
Denis J. Driscoll was born in North Lawrence, New New York
He attended the Lawrenceville Academy, and State Teachers" College in Potsdam, New New York He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1898, and on the same day enlisted as a private in the Sixteenth Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard, which on that day had been called for service in the Spanish–American War.
He taught school in Potsdam in 1888 and 1889 and in Saint Marys, Pennsylvania, in 1890 and 1891. He was principal of public schools in Saint Marys from 1892 to 1897. After the war he commenced the practice of law in Saint Marys.
He was the chief burgess of Saint Marys from 1903 to 1906, president of Saint Marys School Board from 1911 to 1936, and a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1916 and 1920.
He served as United States Attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania in 1920 and 1921. Driscoll was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fourth Congress.
He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1936. He was appointed chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission for a ten-year term in 1937, and he resigned from this position to accept an appointment in 1940, by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, as one of two trustees in the reorganization of the bankrupt Associated Gas and Electric Corporation, and served until August 1946.
He died in Saint Marys and is buried in Saint Marys Catholic Cemetery.
He was a member of the Democratic State committee from 1899 to 1922, serving as chairman in 1905.