Kenneth Dam Obit

Kenneth Dam Obituary

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Kenneth Dam, born on a Kansas farm, attended a one room schoolhouse, graduated at the top of his class from the University of Kansas and the University of Chicago Law School. He clerked on the Supreme Court for Charles Whitaker, practiced briefly at Covington and Burling (WDC) and Cravath Swain and Moore (NYC) before returning to the University of Chicago Law School as Professor of International Law and Economics and, later, as Provost of the University.

He is the author of numerous books and articles, He served in government as Assistant Director of the O.M.B., Director of the White House Council on Economic Policy 1971-73, as Deputy Sec. of State during Glasnost,1982-85, and as Deputy Sec. of Treasury 2001- 04 leading 130 nations in the financial response to the 9/11 attacks. He briefly serve as Acting United States Secretary of the Treasury.

He served as Executive Vice President of IBM for external relations 1985-1992, as arbitrator in the players' collective bargaining for the NBA and NHL, as a member of the Bilderberg steering committee and on the American boards of the Alcoa and BMW Corporations. Remembered for his love of learning, humility and generosity, he is survived by his wife of 60 years, Marcia, his son Eliot, daughter Charlotte, and grandchildren Benjamin and Fiona.

Kenneth Willard Dam was born in Marysville, Kansas, the son of Ida (Hueppelheiser) and Oliver Dam, a grain and chicken farmer. His grandparents were German and Danish immigrants. He graduated from Marysville High School, in 1950 and from the University of Kansas in 1954, and earned his J.D. degree from the University of Chicago law school in 1957. He then served as a law clerk to United States Supreme Court justice Charles Whittaker in 1957 and 1958. He became an associate at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore until he joined the University of Chicago as a law professor in 1960, becoming provost in 1980. Dam was a longtime director of the University of Chicago Law School's program in Law & Economics.

Dam held a number of government positions during various Republican administrations while on leave from the University of Chicago:

Program Assistant Director for national security and international affairs at the Office of Management and Budget (1971–1973)

Executive Director of the White House Council on Economic Policy (1973)

Deputy Secretary of State (1982–1985)

After leaving the Reagan administration in 1985, Dam became vice president for law and external relations at IBM until 1992. He served as president and CEO of the United Way of America in 1992, and helped lead an investigation of a highly publicized scandal in the leadership of that organization and reorganize its staff and governance. He then rejoined the University of Chicago law school faculty.

He has also been an arbitrator, most notably from 1996 to 2001 under the collective bargaining agreement between professional basketball players and the National Basketball Association. Dam has served on the board of a number of public policy institutions, including the Council on Foreign Relations, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, and the Brookings Institution. He was co-chairman of the Aspen Strategy Group from 1991 to 2001 and was, during 1999 and 2000, chairman of the German-American Academic Council. From 1987 to 2001 he was a member of the board of Alcoa. He is a former member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group. He first participated in their annual conference in 1983 when he was Under Deputy Secretary of State. He would miss only one conference between 1983 and 1997 and participate again in 2001 and 2002.