The Annual Andrew Kamarck Award
Every year, the Brewster Democratic Town Committee honors a member ofthe community with the
Andrew Kamarck Award for outstanding service to the Democratic party and community in the spirit of Andrew Kamarck.
Andrew Kamarck Award for outstanding service to the Democratic party and community in the spirit of Andrew Kamarck.
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About Andrew Kamarck-
In his 95 years, Andrew Kamarck, A world-renowned economist, author and civic leader took on many challenges, from helping to rebuild Europe after World War II to organizing Democrats in the Republican stronghold of Cape Cod in the 1980s. He died in 2010.
Kamarck won medals and honors for helping to restore the Italian banking system and set up the Marshall Plan to help European countries after World War II. Later, during 25 years working at the World Bank, he focused on the economic development of countries in Africa and led a push to expand economic research and publishing throughout the world.
Kamarck retired in 1977 and moved to Brewster, the summer home of his wife during her childhood.
“We knew if we lived here, (our three children) would come to visit us and we wouldn’t have to travel to see them,” he said in a 1987 interview with the Cape Cod Times.When he moved to the Cape, he was told, “It’s not a good idea to let on that you were a Democrat,” Davies said yesterday. Undeterred, Kamarck drew 100 Democrats to a meeting at Cape Cod Community College in the early 1980s, the start of what eventually became the Cape and Islands Democratic Council, he recently told Howard Bender, chairman of the Brewster Democratic Town Committee. Democrats made gains as a result of Kamarck’s efforts. In 1986, for example, Robert O’Leary was elected as a county commissioner and, in 2000, he became the first Democrat since the Civil War to represent Cape Cod as a state senator.
O’Leary yesterday called Kamarck “the godfather of the Democratic Party here on the Cape, and he was the sweetest man that one could imagine.”
In his 1987 interview with the Times, Kamarck acknowledged some people called him a “flaming liberal.” While Kamarck accepted the liberal label, he said he was more conservative on many issues than many Republicans. “It seems to me a real conservative is one who obeys the laws and protects the Constitution,” he said.
In addition to his political organizing, Kamarck also served as president of the Housing Assistance Corporation of Cape Cod, dedicated to affordable housing; the Center for Individual and Family Services, a counseling agency; and the Cape Cod Economic Development Commission.
“He was all about improving things,” O’Leary said. “It wasn’t about partisanship for him. He was convinced that there were certain things that we should do as a community.”
Many people came to know Kamarck through his frequent letters to the editor in local papers. A 2005 letter to the Times gave facts and figures to show that Social Security will be solvent for years to come. When his daughter, Davies, moved to the Cape in 2000, she ran into people who knew her father from his letters to the Times. “They would say, ‘I never agreed with him but I always read him,’” she said.
Kamarck was touched, she said, when the Brewster Democratic Town Committee created the Andrew Kamarck Award, an annual honor for a Cape Cod Democrat who best exemplifies the qualities of the Democratic Party.
In his 95 years, Andrew Kamarck, A world-renowned economist, author and civic leader took on many challenges, from helping to rebuild Europe after World War II to organizing Democrats in the Republican stronghold of Cape Cod in the 1980s. He died in 2010.
Kamarck won medals and honors for helping to restore the Italian banking system and set up the Marshall Plan to help European countries after World War II. Later, during 25 years working at the World Bank, he focused on the economic development of countries in Africa and led a push to expand economic research and publishing throughout the world.
Kamarck retired in 1977 and moved to Brewster, the summer home of his wife during her childhood.
“We knew if we lived here, (our three children) would come to visit us and we wouldn’t have to travel to see them,” he said in a 1987 interview with the Cape Cod Times.When he moved to the Cape, he was told, “It’s not a good idea to let on that you were a Democrat,” Davies said yesterday. Undeterred, Kamarck drew 100 Democrats to a meeting at Cape Cod Community College in the early 1980s, the start of what eventually became the Cape and Islands Democratic Council, he recently told Howard Bender, chairman of the Brewster Democratic Town Committee. Democrats made gains as a result of Kamarck’s efforts. In 1986, for example, Robert O’Leary was elected as a county commissioner and, in 2000, he became the first Democrat since the Civil War to represent Cape Cod as a state senator.
O’Leary yesterday called Kamarck “the godfather of the Democratic Party here on the Cape, and he was the sweetest man that one could imagine.”
In his 1987 interview with the Times, Kamarck acknowledged some people called him a “flaming liberal.” While Kamarck accepted the liberal label, he said he was more conservative on many issues than many Republicans. “It seems to me a real conservative is one who obeys the laws and protects the Constitution,” he said.
In addition to his political organizing, Kamarck also served as president of the Housing Assistance Corporation of Cape Cod, dedicated to affordable housing; the Center for Individual and Family Services, a counseling agency; and the Cape Cod Economic Development Commission.
“He was all about improving things,” O’Leary said. “It wasn’t about partisanship for him. He was convinced that there were certain things that we should do as a community.”
Many people came to know Kamarck through his frequent letters to the editor in local papers. A 2005 letter to the Times gave facts and figures to show that Social Security will be solvent for years to come. When his daughter, Davies, moved to the Cape in 2000, she ran into people who knew her father from his letters to the Times. “They would say, ‘I never agreed with him but I always read him,’” she said.
Kamarck was touched, she said, when the Brewster Democratic Town Committee created the Andrew Kamarck Award, an annual honor for a Cape Cod Democrat who best exemplifies the qualities of the Democratic Party.