Quinn (Robert H.) is born in Boston.

The son of Irish immigrants, Robert Quinn graduates from Boston College, and, after contracting tuberculosis and spending two years at the Mattapan Chronic Disease Hospital. He then graduates from Harvard Law School, and became a lawyer. A resident of Auckland Street, Quinn serves in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1957-1970) and as speaker (1967-70), as Massachusetts attorney general (1971-74) and runs unsuccessfully for governor in 1974. He dies in Falmouth on January 13, 2014.