Special to the Ledger

Max M. Kampelman, a lawyer and diplomat who served as ambassador and head of the United States delegation to the negotiations on nuclear and space arms in Geneva, died on Monday, Jan. 28 in Washington, D.C., where he lived. He was 92. The cause was reported to be congestive heart failure.
In addition to his diplomatic assignment, he was a senior advisor to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations and served as legislative counsel to U.S. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. He served by Presidential appointment as a member of the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace, and as Trustee of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which he previously served as chairman.
He was appointed by President Reagan to serve as ambassador and head of the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which took place in Madrid from 1980 to 1983. During these negotiations, he secured the release of Soviet religious and political dissidents.
A founder of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and a longtime member of its Board of Advisors, in November 1987 he was presented with JINSA’s Henry M. Jackson Distinguished Service Award. He was also honorary vice chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, chairman of the National Advisory Committee of the American Jewish Committee, and vice president of the Jewish Publication Society.
Until his retirement in 1985, he was a partner in the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Kampelman, where he represented many high-profile companies and international figures, including Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
Born in New York City, he was the son of Jewish immigrants from Romania. He attended Jewish parochial schools before graduating from New York University in 1940. He received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Reagan in 1989 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton in 1999, the highest civilian award in the nation.
He was a registered conscientious objector during World War II, but renounced his pacifist beliefs in 1955 and joined the Marine Corps as a reserve officer, serving until 1962.
In 1968, Kampelman was a close adviser to Humphrey, who narrowly lost the presidential election to Richard M. Nixon. When the 1972 nomination went to George S. McGovern, however, Kampelman began to distance himself from the left-leaning elements of the Democratic Party. In 1976, he was one of the leaders — along with Reagan and labor leader Lane Kirkland — of the Committee on the Present Danger, which recommended a tougher U.S. stance toward the Soviet Union.
He was predeceased by his wife, Marjorie Buetow Kampelman, and two of their children, David Kampelman and Anne Kampelman Wiederkehr. He is survived by three children, Jeffrey Kampelman of Chevy Chase, Md., Julia Kampelman Stevenson of Washington, and Sarah Kampelman of Hamilton, Va.; and five grandchildren.