Announcement
The IRC is saddened to learn of the passing of Sheppie Abramowitz. Since the 1960’s, Sheppie was a pillar of the IRC community, dedicated to improving the lives of refugees and facilitating the support of people displaced by conflict and crisis worldwide. She was steadfast in her commitment to public service and furthering the impact of IRC. Over the course of five decades, Sheppie served as IRC’s Vice President of Government Relations, Special Advisor, Family Liaison Director, a volunteer teacher in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Austria, and stewarded the founding of IRC’s office in Washington D.C. Her extraordinary commitment to IRC forever shaped the organization and left a lasting impact on all those she crossed paths with.
The impact on those she befriended and worked alongside was longstanding. George Biddle, a close friend and former colleague at the IRC, recounted having “learned so much from Sheppie, as so many IRC staff and Board members did. She never took her eye off the core humanitarian imperative of the IRC - that each refugee was an individual who needed protection, care and compassion. Sheppie was a force but always worked to achieve her goals with warmth, kindness, and a low-key yet highly persuasive and effective leadership style. She was one of a kind and truly selfless in her lifelong commitment to the refugee cause.”
Sheppie was many things: a dedicated public servant, a fierce advocate, a loyal friend, and a loving wife and mother. In what is a touching tribute, Tim Geithner, IRC Board of Directors Co-Chair, described Sheppie as having “sparkling intelligence, exacting standards about people, humor, a deep interest in the world, and graciousness”, characterizations that aptly captures the profound impact she had on so many. Tim went on to say “She took me to visit two UNHCR/IRC refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border late in 1979… I had never seen a refugee camp with that scale of concentrated, dense, abject suffering. It was wrenching and shocking, but made more powerful and meaningful to have done it with Sheppie, to watch her as she walked the camps and talked to people. That experience with her fundamentally changed how I thought about work and life.”
Sheppie’s love of hats was unrivaled. It was only fitting that when Ren Levy, former IRC President, promoted her to Vice President of Government Relations at IRC, he did so by giving her a hat. The hat, previously owned by Ren’s wife Elizabeth, was deeply cherished, appreciated, and loved loudly by Sheppie. Her outward appreciation and recognition of such a simple gift captures the essence of who she was as a person: thoughtful, kind, beholden, and humble.
In the words of Mike Abramowitz, Sheppie’s son, “There was no cause more dear to my mother than supporting refugees, and no organization more important to her than the International Rescue Committee. She was a volunteer, a donor and she served at the highest levels of the organization. She was a close personal friend to several IRC presidents and to countless other staff and volunteers. Sheppie Abramowitz believed passionately that the IRC was the best vehicle to save lives and protect refugees, and she worked her whole life to strengthen its ability to fulfill its mission."
We are truly grateful for Sheppie and her lifetime of generous service to the IRC. Her legacy lives on from her commitment to refugees and the world’s most vulnerable people, and her many contributions that helped shape the fabric of the organization as it is today.
On behalf of the IRC, we extend our deepest sympathies to her family and friends in this challenging time.
From left to right, Mort Abramowitz, Cynthia Whitehead, John Whitehead, Sheppie, and Bob DeVecchi, 2010.
From left to right, Sheppie, David Miliband, Sarah O’Hagan, and Louise Shackelton at the Global Rescue Dinner in 2013.