Profile
Disarming Foes and Endearing Friends
Marshall Islander Oscar deBrum Honored
In the Marshall Islands, flags at half-mast for a week is an honor reserved for deaths of high-ranking chiefs and elected leaders. That this honor was accorded to career public servant Oscar deBrum on his death in late July is an indication of the esteem in which he was held in the Marshall Islands.
DeBrum, 73, died after an extended battle with cancer. Most recently the chairman of the Nuclear Claims Tribunal, deBrum was the most high-profile public servant in the Marshall Islands. His career started in the early part of the United States Trust Territory administration and spanned five decades.
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One of deBrum’s most enduring qualities was his diplomatic skill at bringing together feuding parties and initiating dialogue among people who otherwise wouldn’t have been talking to each other. DeBrum was a gentleman in his manner, an attitude that disarmed adversaries and endeared him to friends.
Samuel Thomsen, the first U.S. ambassador to the Marshall Islands, said that "Oscar was our mentor and guide, counselor and defender as we learned about the Republic of the Marshall Islands. We have missed Oscar greatly, because of his wisdom, but also because of his great spirituality, his sense of humor and his expressed love for his people."
DeBrum was many things to many people. He was a great sportsman, who, despite his diminutive size, vanquished many an unwary opponent in tennis. At the first Micronesian Games in Saipan in 1969, deBrum won a gold medal in his sport.
From the late 1970s, he was the government’s chief secretary, managing government ministries and dealing with the United States in the then-fledgling nation; in the mid-1980s, he was a Compact negotiator, who spent many months in Washington, D.C., pushing through the first Compact of Free Association deal with the United States. He was an ‘ukulele-playing songleader who regaled Marshallese and Americans alike at numerous Fourth of July celebrations at the U.S. embassy. In the evenings, he became a pipe-smoking storyteller who often, in recent years, held court at the Marshall Islands Club and, when he wasn’t chatting, liked to "chum" (feed) a school of fish off the oceanside of the club.
From the early days of the American Trust Territory administration, he advanced up the ladder to become the second Micronesian district administrators for the Marshall Islands prior to the end of the Trust Territory. His career segued from district administrator to chief secretary under the new Marshall Islands government in the late 1970s. This is the top nonpolitical administrative post in government. He was also appointed by President Amata Kabua as a roving ambassador, though most of his duties were focused on the home front.
He remained in the chief secretary’s post until his retirement in the early-1990s, when he was appointed chairman of the Nuclear Claims Tribunal, a post that he held until his death. He was the first Marshall Islander and nonlawyer to chair the Tribunal, established in 1987 through the Compact of Free Association to adjudicate nuclear test claims. "Oscar really fit the bill," said William Graham, the Tribunal’s public advocate since 1987. "I don’t think anyone could have done better. He brought so much to the Tribunal: his knowledge, sensitivity and experience."
DeBrum was notable not only for his polished diplomatic skills, but also because he stands out as one of the most distinguished and prominent Marshall Islanders who never sought elective office. He is survived by wife Jinnie, children and grandchildren.
