Maurice Joseph Tobin was born in 1901 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Although he studied law at Boston College, he never graduated. Tobin held various jobs, working at a leather company and with the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company. In 1926, Tobin entered politics, serving in the Massachusetts State House and on the Boston School committee. In 1937, he became mayor of Boston. He won reelection in 1942 and two years later was a successful candidate in Massachusetts's gubernatorial election; he was defeated in 1946, however, when he ran for reelection. In 1949, Tobin became President Harry S. Truman's secretary of labor, a position he would hold until 1953. Following that stint, Maurice Joseph Tobin served as director of Grayson Robinson Company before dying in 1953.