They had three sons: Martin Bernard, William Joseph and John Francis Durkin.

He eventually became president of that union, and then served as Director of Labor for the State of Illinois from 1933 to 1941.

He worked closely with the President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins.

This led to his resignation after less than eight months in office, the shortest tenure of any Secretary of Labor.

This biography of a person who has held a non-elected position in the federal government of the United States is a stub.