| Andrew Brimmer | |
| Office: | Chair of the District of Columbia Financial Control Board |
| Term Start: | June 1, 1995 |
| Term End: | September 1, 1998 |
| Predecessor: | Position established |
| Successor: | Alice Rivlin |
| Office2: | Member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors |
| President2: | Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon Gerald Ford |
| Term Start2: | March 9, 1966 |
| Term End2: | August 31, 1974 |
| Predecessor2: | C. Canby Balderston |
| Successor2: | Philip Coldwell |
| Birth Name: | Andrew Felton Brimmer |
| Birth Date: | 13 September 1926 |
| Birth Place: | Newellton, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Spouse: | Doris Scott |
| Children: | Esther |
| Education: | University of Washington, Seattle (BA, MA) Harvard University (PhD) |
Andrew Felton Brimmer (September 13, 1926 - October 7, 2012)[1] was an American economist and business leader who served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 1966 to 1974. A member of the Democratic Party, Brimmer was the first African American to sit on the Board.[1]
Brimmer was born in Newellton in Tensas Parish, Louisiana, to a family of sharecroppers.[2] He attended racially segregated schools and graduated from the former Tensas Rosenwald High School in St. Joseph, the seat of government of Tensas Parish. He was a classmate of Emmitt Douglas, later the long-term president of the Louisiana NAACP. Tensas Rosenwald closed in 1970, when the parish public schools were desegregated. The formerly all-white Newellton High School then function as a desegregated institution from 1970 until its closing because of low enrollment in 2006.
Brimmer served in the United States Army from 1945 to 1946. He attended the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, where he obtained both his bachelor's and master's degrees. In 1951, Brimmer received a Fulbright scholarship to study in India and enrolled in 1952 in Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1957, he received his Ph.D. from the Harvard University.[2]
While he was still at Harvard, Brimmer worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as an economist, and established the central bank of the Sudan. After graduation, Brimmer became assistant secretary of economic affairs in the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 1966, under appointment from U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Brimmer began an eight-year term on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve, becoming the first African American in that position. In 1974, Brimmer left the Federal Reserve and taught at Harvard University for two years. Thereafter, he formed his own consulting company, Brimmer & Company. He was a trustee of the Economists for Peace and Security.
Brimmer served on the Tuskegee University board of directors from 1965 - 2010, and as the board's chairman for the last 28 years on the board, making him the longest serving chairman in the school's history.[3]
In 2020, the American Economic Association announced the establishment of the "Andrew Brimmer Undergraduate Essay Prize," to be presented to an undergraduate student at a U.S. based institution of higher learning majoring in economics, political science, public policy, or related fields for the best essay on the “economic well-being of Black Americans.”[7]
Brimmer married the former Doris Millicent Scott.[2] They had a daughter, Esther Dianne Brimmer.[2]
Brimmer died on October 7, 2012, at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C.[2]