Posted on Fri, Nov. 13, 2009
MIAMI - Henry Kimelman, 88, whose fund-raising and support for Sen. George S. McGovern in the 1972 presidential campaign earned him a spot on President Richard M. Nixon's "enemies list," died Monday of heart failure at his home in West Palm Beach.
Mr. Kimelman turned to politics after building a business career in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He was chief of staff for Interior Secretary Stewart Udall during the final year of the Lyndon Johnson administration. In Washington, he befriended McGovern, of South Dakota.
Mr. Kimelman encouraged McGovern to pursue the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination and became the senator's chief fund-raiser. Mr. Kimelman's house in Washington was where the campaign told Sen. Thomas Eagleton that he could not continue to be McGovern's running mate after it was revealed he had received electroshock treatment for depression, his son Donald said.
Donald Kimelman works for the Pew Charitable Trusts as managing director, information initiatives and the Philadelphia Program. He joined Pew in 1997 after an 18-year editing and writing career at The Inquirer.
Henry Kimelman's support for McGovern landed him on Nixon's "enemies list" of 200 political opponents.
President Jimmy Carter named Mr. Kimelman ambassador to Haiti in 1980, during the regime of Jean-Claude Duvalier.
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