Doyle L. Niemann, who served for a dozen years in the House of Delegates and had an even longer record of public service in Prince George’s County, died Wednesday at the age of 77 at the Washington Hospital Center, his family announced on the website everloved.com. A former colleague said Niemann died of complications from surgery to remove a tumor.
Niemann was the classic case of a 1960s student radical who turned to community service, and eventually electoral politics, to achieve his ideals.
“He leaves behind a legacy of compassion, unity, and unwavering dedication to truth, justice, and social change,” the family said in a statement.
Niemann was an anti-war activist as a student at the University of Nebraska and later at the University of Texas, and was an active member in groups such as the Young Democrats and Students for a Democratic Society. He later traveled to Cuba as a member of the Venceremos Brigade to cut sugar cane and help support the revolution.
After college, Niemann helped launch several alternative newspapers around the country, including In These Times, a Chicago-based investigative publication that exists to this day. He was the paper’s founding managing editor.
