ATLANTA (AP) - Robert Jerome Lipshutz, the former White House counsel to President Jimmy Carter, died Saturday at an Atlanta hospice. He was 88.
Lipshutz's son, Randy, said the cause of death was complications caused by a blood clot to the lungs.
The Atlanta attorney was introduced to the future president around the time Carter, then a state senator, made a failed run for Georgia governor in the 1966 Democratic primary against Lester Maddox, a segregationist. Carter lost, but Lipshutz supported Carter when he successfully ran for governor again in 1970.
As governor, Carter appointed Lipshutz as vice chairman of the board for Georgia's Department of Human Resources and to a state compensation commission.
The lawyer gained national prominence when he served as treasurer and legal counsel for Carter's presidential campaign, even giving the campaign space in his Atlanta law office. When Carter defeated President Gerald Ford in 1976, Lipshutz accepted a job as White House counsel and served until October 1979.
Lipshutz's son said his father was proud of the administration for its work supporting affirmative action, increasing the number of women appointed to judgeships and elevating blacks to high-ranking government posts. Despite getting a taste of national politics, Lipshutz never sought elective office.
"He was more interested in being behind the scenes, helping shape the positions," his son said.
One behind-the-scenes role was a "Jewish voice in the White House" as Carter helped negotiate an accord between then-enemies Egypt and Israel in 1978, the son said. Lipshutz considered the accord reached during talks at Camp David and a subsequent peace treaty a key accomplishment of the administration.
"Bob was a very dear friend and trusted counselor to me for many decades," Carter said in a statement Tuesday. "His insights played a key role in many White House initiatives and decisions, including the success of the Camp David Peace Accords between Israel and Egypt."
The former president said Lipshutz will be "sorely missed."
Lipshutz was also co-author of a 1978 memorandum to Carter that recommended creating a Presidential Commission on the Holocaust, which was tasked with finding a memorial to the millions of Jews and others slaughtered by the Nazi regime during World War II, said Stuart Eizenstat, Carter's domestic policy adviser, in a statement. That commission eventually recommended creating what is now the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
Lipshutz is survived by his wife, Betty Beck Lipshutz, and six children. His first wife, Barbara Levin Lipshutz, died in 1970.