To have described Nancy Gewirtz as an advocate for the poor would have been an understatement of epic proportion.
She was more a powerful force.
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Gewirtz, a professor of social work and the co-founder of The Poverty Institute at Rhode Island College, died Sunday, Nov. 14, at her home on the East Side of Providence after a three-and-a-half-year battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 59.
Her causes were welfare recipients and the working poor. Gewirtz was tenacious in championing those causes. She provided a loud voice for a constituency that too often remains silent.
But what so impressed us was the way she painstakingly broke down issues with facts and statistics. She brought much more than raw emotion to legislative hearings at the State House or other public discussions. That’s why she was so highly regarded by organizations like the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, by state officials and business leaders – even if they could not help but label some of her stances as anti-business.
Gewirtz recognized that it wasn’t enough to lobby for an increase in the minimum wage or against special tax breaks. She knew she had to craft well-reasoned arguments that addressed the overall condition of the economy.
In an interview with Providence Business News this past February, Gewirtz addressed those topics in just such a way.
On the issue of increasing the minimum wage, she said: “My argument is that there is significant research that shows that when you give low- and moderate-income people buying power, they buy in the local community – whether it is their first car, or a home or a washing machine. Often, I know the argument is: ‘Give the wealthy more money and they will stay here.’ But the reality is that they buy a second home elsewhere, a place where it is warm. They don’t necessarily re-invest the money in the local economy.”
Nancy Gewirtz was a fighter. And she will be remembered for the way she tirelessly fought for the poor. But we will also remember that what she was really fighting for was a better economy.
Her death leaves a deep void in this community. We hope that as a tribute to her, others will step forward to fill it – with the same passion and commitment she always displayed.
Our thoughts are with the Gewirtz family and friends.
