Andrew Brimmer, ’50, who broke the color barrier to serve as the first African American governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, died Oct. 7 in Washington, D.C. He was 86.

Brimmer’s life was a quintessential American story. He was born and raised in Louisiana, the son of a sharecropper. After he graduated from the UW, he went on to Harvard University for a doctoral degree. In his nomination to the Fed in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson said, “He is a man of wide professional experience and great personal integrity, a man of moderation whose brilliance is combined with a sense of fair play that I believe will enable him to serve with distinction.”

Brimmer served for more than eight years on the Board. He stepped down in 1974 to join the faculty of Harvard Business School. He started his own consulting firm after he left the Federal Reserve.—Julie Garner