Ackermann, Barbara, 1925-2020

Barbara Hulley Ackermann (March 1, 1925 - July 4, 2020) was an American politician and activist. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first woman to serve as Mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Born Barbara Hulley in 1925 in Stockholm, Sweden, where her father, Benjamin M. Hulley, a career foreign service officer, was then stationed, she grew up in France and Ireland until her family moved to Litchfield, Connecticut in 1941 to avoid World War II. She earned a bachelor's degree from Smith College. After college, Ackermann worked as a proofreader and copyeditor in New York before marrying and settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she worked as a writer. Ackermann served on the Cambridge, Massachusetts School Committee from 1962 to 1967 and the Cambridge, Massachusetts City Council from 1968 to 1977. During her time as a city council member, she served as the first woman mayor of Cambridge, elected by her fellow council members in 1972. Ackermann was a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1978, finishing third behind Edward J. King and Michael Dukakis in the Democratic primary with 6.7 percent of the vote. After politics, Ackermann turned her efforts full time to promoting public health.

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