Bob Massie (politician)
| Bob Massie | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Robert Kinloch Massie IV August 17, 1956 |
| Residence | Somerville, MA |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Princeton University (A.B.); Yale Divinity School (M.Div.); Harvard Business School (D.B.A.) |
| Known for | Ceres Executive Director; Global Reporting Initiative co-founder |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Tate |
| Children | Daughter, two sons |
| Parent(s) | Robert K. Massie, Suzanne Massie |
Robert Kinloch "Bob" Massie IV (born 1956) is an American author, environmentalist and social justice activist—best known for his opposition to South Africa's apartheid regime. He is the son of historians Robert K. Massie, winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for biography; and Suzanne Massie, who played a key role in forming the relationship between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, which led to the end of the Cold War.
Massie was born on August 17, 1956, with severe classic hemophilia, an inherited blood disorder affecting one in 5,000 males in the United States. In the process of learning to manage this condition, his parents began to study its history, which led to Robert Massie Sr.'s book Nicholas and Alexandra (1967), a biography of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, produced as an Academy Award winning film four years later. Massie's parents also wrote a more personal account of their son's challenges, titled Journey (Knopf, 1975), of which Time Magazine wrote, "Its portrait of Bobby Massie's enduring courage and the decency and devotion of those who helped him makes Journey a remarkable human document."
One consequence of the family's struggle with hemophilia was a heightened awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. health care system, its pivotal importance, and its potentially devastating costs.
Despite the physical challenges he faced, Massie entered Princeton University, graduating magna cum laude in 1978 with a degree in history. As an officer of his alumni class he established the Class of 1978 Foundation, one of the first university foundations to fund direct summer service for students.
While at Princeton he became increasingly aware of the importance of politics in civil society and individual lives, becoming a leader in the student movement for Princeton’s divestiture from South Africa, and closer to home, campaigning for equal access to University dining clubs, many of which did not admit women as members. During this period he also spent three summers and parts of his sophomore year working in the office of U.S. Senator Henry Jackson (D-Washington). While investigating weaknesses in the U.S. blood supply system, he saw firsthand how industry pressures delayed the implementation of critical safety precautions now taken for granted. Massie’s concerns were underscored several years later, when he learned he had contracted HIV from contaminated blood products, a diagnosis considered a virtual death sentence at that time.
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Wikipedia