Milton S. Gwirtzman, D.C. lawyer and confidant to Kennedy brothers, dies at 74

Milton S. Gwirtzman, a Washington lawyer and political consultant who was best known as a confidant to John, Robert and Edward Kennedy, died July 23 of metastatic melanoma at his home in Bethesda. He was 74.

Mr. Gwirtzman was fresh out of Yale Law School when he entered the political world in 1958 as a speechwriter for former President Harry S. Truman, who was traveling the country to campaign on behalf of Democrats running for Congress.

In 1960, the young lawyer joined Democratic Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy’s successful presidential campaign as an assistant research director. Mr. Gwirtzman’s responsibilities included helping prepare Kennedy for debates against then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon, the Republican candidate.

Two years later, Mr. Gwirtzman worked on Edward M. Kennedy’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate, beginning a personal and professional association that lasted more than half a century until Ted Kennedy’s death in 2009.

Mr. Gwirtzman was one of a tight circle of advisers whom Ted Kennedy called on in times of crisis, including the 1969 accident on Chappaquiddick Island, Mass., in which Kennedy left a party and drove off a road into the water. His young companion, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned as Kennedy swam to safety.

Kennedy tried to address the tragedy with a televised speech — a confession and apology drafted by Mr. Gwirtzman and Theodore C. Sorensen, John F. Kennedy’s former speechwriter.

Mr. Gwirtzman worked with Ted Kennedy on several of the senator’s books, including “Her Grace Above Gold,” a book of tributes to Rose Kennedy, the family matriarch. In the last years of Ted Kennedy’s life, Mr. Gwirtzman helped him prepare for oral history interviews that are housed at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for public affairs.

In addition to his work for John and Ted Kennedy, Mr. Gwirtzman was chief speechwriter in 1964 for former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy during his successful campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in New York.

Mr. Gwirtzman also worked for Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1968. After Robert Kennedy was assassinated that year, Mr. Gwirtzman helped draft a eulogy that was delivered by Ted Kennedy.

Mr. Gwirtzman then co-wrote — with William J. vanden Heuvel, another member of the inner Kennedy circle — a political biography of the slain candidate, “On His Own: Robert F. Kennedy, 1964-1968.

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