President Dwight D. Eisenhower and John A. Volpe. Volpe, a native of Wakefield, Massachusetts, was born on December 8, 1908 in the Water Street home of his Italian immigrant parents. Volpe, a Republican, was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1960, 1964 and 1966. In 1968 he accepted the position of Secretary of Transportation in the administration of President Richard Nixon. In 1972, he became the first Italian-American to hold the position of US Ambassador to Italy. He served until 1977. John A. Volpe died in 1994 and is buried in Forest Glade Cemetery in his hometown of Wakefield. The John A. Volpe Library at Wakefield High School is named in his honor, and a plaque marks the house of his birth on Water Street.
