OBIT: Mathew A. DUNN, 1942, native of Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/
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MATHEW A. DUNN

Ex-Congressman Mat A. Dunn Dies
Was Reared in Meyersdale and Visited Here Several Years Ago

  Mathew A. Dunn, known as the blind Congressman from Pittsburgh, and a former 
Meyersdale boy who made good, died last Friday morning at the age of 56.
  Mr. Dunn, who retired two years ago, after serving four successful terms in 
Congress, although handicapped by blindness, came to Meyersdale with his parents 
when only two years old.
  His home here was a weather-boarded log house, located on High Street, where 
now stands the property owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Habel.  Several 
years ago, when Congressman Dunn and his wife came to visit with Mr. and Mrs. 
Habel, after having been away from Meyersdale since his boyhood days, he was 
able to direct his chauffeur how to find the site of his former home without 
obtaining information from anyone in the local community.
  Although totally blind, Congressman Dunn was possessed with an unexplainable 
talent that enabled him to observe without eyes.  He was known to be able to 
give a perfect description of the stature of a person by shaking his or her 
hand.
  Mr. Dunn lost one eye after being hit by a snowball at the age of 12.  He lost 
the other at the age of 21 while wrestling.
  He finished his education at the Pittsburgh School for the Blind and the 
Overbrook (Philadelphia) School for the Blind.  He became a prominent attorney 
and was elected to serve six years in the State Assembly before going to 
Congress in 1932 where he served until 1940.
  In his eight years at Washington he introduced bill after bill designed to 
"wipe out poverty and unemployment," but few of his measures got out of 
committee.  One called for a $100,000,000,000 appropriation to be spent over a 
10-year period to provide jobs for everyone.
  Other Dunn bills provide for payment of a $100 pension to everybody past 40 
with an income less than $2,400 a year and calling for free medical and dental 
service to all industrial and agricultural workers.
  Mr. Dunn is survived by his widow, Mrs. Minnie Rudolph Dunn, Pittsburgh; a 
brother, Joseph, Aliquippa; and a sister, Mrs. Margaret McCune of Davenport, 
Iowa.  He was not a relative of Charles Dunne of Meyersdale, but their families 
were close friends and neighbors during Congressman Dunn's boyhood days here.  
It is said that Mathew A. Dunn practically made his home with Charles Dunne, and 
with Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Habel before leaving here to go to Pittsburgh.

Meyersdale Republican, February 19, 1942