Eva Cohn Galambos (July 1, 1928 – April 19, 2015), was a

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-born American economist and politician who served as the first

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Sandy Springs Sandy Springs is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States, and a suburb of Atlanta. The city's population was 108,080 at the 2020 census, making it Georgia's 7th most populous city. It is the site of several corporate headquar ...

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. She served as the city's inaugural Mayor from December 1, 2005, until January 7, 2014, when Rusty Paul took office as the city's second mayor.

Early life and education

Eva Cohn was born in

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, Germany, and her father was a judge. He was ousted from his position, along with other prominent Jews, in 1933 when

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

came to power. The family then moved to

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, where they lived for six years before moving to the United States and settling in

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, where her father got a job at the University of Georgia with the help of prominent alumnus

Harold Hirsch Harold D. Hirsch (October 19, 1881 – September 25, 1939) was a student at the University of Georgia from 1898 to 1901 who also played football for his alma mater. After graduation from the University of Georgia, he studied law at Columbia Univ ...

. Galambos attended Athens High School and graduated as

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...

in 1944. She later graduated from the University of Georgia in 1948 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. Later in life she earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

(M.A.) in labor and industrial relations from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

and a

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in economics from

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. She was the recipient of the 2011 Andrew Young School Distinguished Alumni Award from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.

Labor activism

An activist for workers, Galambos landed her first professional job as Associate Editor of the Atlanta Journal of Labor, writing local copy to interest the union members. Her "love for activism" extended to campaigning for

rent control Rent regulation is a system of laws for the rental market of dwellings, with controversial effects on affordability of housing and tenancies. Generally, a system of rent regulation involves: *Price controls, limits on the rent that a landlord ...

in the city of Atlanta. While "thanked" for her research, the practice, adopted in New York, was not enacted in a Southern city more sensitive to issues of government overreach. Galambos later obtained a position, working on behalf of the

International Association of Machinists The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is an AFL–CIO/ CLC trade union representing over 600,000 workers as of 2024 in more than 200 industries with most of its membership in the United States and Canada. Origi ...

. She was a labor economist for many years, teaching at

Clark Atlanta University Clark Atlanta University (CAU or Clark Atlanta) is a private, Methodist, historically black research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded on September19, 1865, as Atlanta University, it was the first HBCU in the South ...

and

Politics

Galambos had held various positions in the Sandy Springs community before being elected the first mayor of the city in early November 2005. She was the president of the Committee for Sandy Springs, from 1975 to 2005, which fought to incorporate Sandy Springs. She was also a co-founder and former secretary of Sandy Springs Revitalization; founder of Sandy Springs Clean and Beautiful; chairwoman of the services committee for the Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods; former chairwoman of the Fulton County Public Housing Authority; and founder of Sandy Springs Civic Roundtable.

Death

She died of cancer on April 19, 2015, at the age of 86. Her funeral was held at Temple Kehillat Chaim in

Roswell, Georgia Roswell is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia, United States. At the official 2020 census, the city had a population of 92,883, making Roswell the state's ninth largest city. A suburb of Atlanta, Roswell has an affluent National Registe ...

on April 21, 2015.

Bibliography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Galambos, Eva 1928 births 2015 deaths Mayors of places in Georgia (U.S. state) Women mayors of places in Georgia (U.S. state) Jewish American people in Georgia (U.S. state) politics Jewish American mayors Jewish American women in politics University of Georgia alumni Georgia State University alumni University of Illinois alumni Emigrants from Nazi Germany Immigrants to the United States People from Sandy Springs, Georgia Politicians from Berlin Deaths from cancer in Georgia (U.S. state) Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Italy