No matter what phase of life he was in -- as a student at the University of Minnesota, an oil company engineer in Baltimore or a civic activist in Minneapolis -- Howard Kahn worked to provide affordable housing for all.
Kahn, a former commissioner of the Minneapolis Housing and Redevelopment Authority, died April 10 in Minneapolis. The Golden Valley resident, who lived in Minneapolis for many years, was 93.
In the mid-1930s, as a student member of the University of Minnesota's Board of Regents, he called on the administration to desegregate the dormitories, said his daughter Judith Kahn of St. Louis Park.
In the 1940s and 1950s, he was chairman of the Minneapolis Housing Association and the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Housing.
Former Mayor P. Kenneth Peterson, who served from 1957 to 1961, appointed him as a commissioner of Minneapolis' Housing and Redevelopment Authority. That agency oversaw the demolition of Skid Row and provided affordable housing for seniors.
"Housing was a center point to people's dignity," said Josie Johnson, a retired businesswoman, former University of Minnesota regent and civil rights leader. "His commitment was beyond placing people in a safe environment."
Kahn also lent his leadership skills to the civil rights movement in the 1960s. "He was a person you could count on, because he was committed to the issues we were all fighting for," said Johnson.
He served on the Mayor's Commission on Human Relations and led efforts at Minneapolis' Temple Israel to establish anti-discrimination policies for the synagogue and its members in their personal and business lives.
