Wallace Hillard Kountze

last updated by Surella on December 1st, 2005 at 4:59 pm


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Remembering and Keeping West Medford…

As chair of the community group organizing this project, Mr. Wallace Hillard Kountze’s deep commitment to the West Medford community is clear and in person his love for this town is almost palpable. Wallace Kountze is not new to civic pride and devotion. In his extraordinary career of public service, he has worked for the city (with Mayor Kevin White), the state (with Governer Michael Dukakis), and the federal (President Carter) governments. Much of his early career involved widening the range of career possibilities for minorities and other under-represented groups and he has clearly taken to heart the Kountze tradition of community commitment, spending 15 years working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Mr. Kountze’s work with the West Medford Community Project and with the Tufts and Brandeis students has encouraged renewed interest in the close connections and shared values of the West Medford African-American community, values like the importance of education, hard work, helping others, and the fellowship of man. We have found these values to be evident in not just the words but the life and actions of Wallace Kountze.**

**Work referenced: Voices of West Medford, by Sharon Kennedy