Columbus Dispatch: Bob Shamansky 1927-2011: Lawyer served term in Congress (Update)

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Robert N. Shamansky | 1927-2011: Lawyer served term in Congress

He also was world traveler and local philanthropist

Robert N. Shamansky’s one term in Congress was 23  years behind him when he made another run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006.

He was pushing 80 by then, but for a man who made daily visits to the gym up until a few weeks ago, his congressional bid did not surprise his close friends and family.

Shamansky, an ardent Democrat, spent $1.4 million of his own money in his unsuccessful attempt to unseat Republican Pat Tiberi that year.

“He was very concerned about the direction the country was headed in,” said his longtime friend and law partner, James Feibel. “There was nothing in it for him. He just really wanted to try to turn things around.”

Shamansky, an accomplished lawyer, world traveler and city philanthropist, died unexpectedly at home on Thursday evening, his nephew and local attorney Sam Shamansky said last night. He was 84.

A graduate of Bexley High School, Ohio State University and Harvard Law School, Robert Shamansky served in the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps before his first run for U.S. Congress in 1966.

He lost that bid to unseat longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Samuel L. Devine.

Fourteen years later, he did unseat Devine and served one term in Congress, until Jan. 3, 1983. He lost to another politician beginning his own career in national and state politics: John Kasich.

Sam Shamansky said his uncle, who never married or had children, believed that government should serve as a safety net for the less fortunate.

“He wasn’t a limousine liberal, let me put it to you that way,” Sam Shamansky said. “He cared about the disadvantaged.”

Sam Shamansky said his uncle was active in community preservation and passionate about seeing the world.

“He’s been everywhere,” he said. “You name it, he’s been there.”

He remembered his uncle as curious and well-read, with “a mind like a trap.”

Feibel recalled his friend as “one of the brightest people I’ve ever met,” with a sharp sense of humor and unfailingly preppy wardrobe.

“He never stopped dressing as he did when he went to Harvard Law School, in the Ivy League tradition,” Feibel said.

Feibel said his friend took up causes because he believed in them, no matter how unpopular his positions might have been. Soon after arriving on Capitol Hill, he took on the tobacco lobby, “which was probably not politically astute for a freshman congressman” in the early 1980s, he said.

Shamansky reflected on his time in Congress during a 1989 interview with the Columbus Jewish Historical Society.

“There are more good people than bad people in Congress, no matter what you might read or think,” he said. “That would be for both Republicans and Democrats. There are some bad characters, but, for the most part, there are some greatly qualified people there.”

tdecker@dispatch.com

Coroner labels former lawmaker’s death suicide

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By Stephanie Czekalinski

The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday August 17, 2011 8:26 AM

The Franklin County coroner has ruled the death of a former congressman and Columbus lawyer a suicide.

Robert N. Shamansky, 84, shot himself at his home on Thursday, his nephew Sam Shamansky confirmed yesterday. The elder Shamansky lived Downtown at 1 Miranova Place, according to voter-registration records.

“It was a most-sudden surprise,” said his nephew. His uncle had no history of depression, was in good health and worked out regularly, he said. “What you have here was a man who wanted to end his life on his own terms.”

sczekalinski@dispatch.com