Andrew F. Brimmer, Fed governor and head of D.C. control board, dies at 86

The Washington Post

By Matt Schudel, Published: October 10

Andrew F. Brimmer, who became the first African American member of the Federal Reserve Board in 1966 and headed a panel that managed the spending and financial practices of the D.C. government during a fiscal crisis in the 1990s, died Oct. 7 at George Washington University Hospital. He was 86.

His wife, Doris M.S. Brimmer, confirmed the death but did not provide a cause.

Dr. Brimmer, a Harvard-trained economist, had worked in academia and for the Commerce Department before President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the seven-member Federal Reserve Board of Governors, which sets the country’s monetary policy and interest rates.

Time magazine dubbed Dr. Brimmer “the Federal Reserve Board’s Jackie Robinson,” after the first African American player in major league baseball. Unlike many members of the Fed board, Dr. Brimmer used his position to advocate for wider educational opportunities in the country’s inner cities and warned that racial discrimination damaged the economy by marginalizing valuable workers.

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/andrew-f-brimmer-fed-governor-and-head-of-dc-control-board-dies-at-86/2012/10/10/50928a26-12f8-11e2-a16b-2c110031514a_story.html?hpid=z16