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Robert M. Ball Is Dead at 93; Led Social Security

Robert M. Ball, the commissioner of Social Security in the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations, an architect of Medicare and an influential opponent of privatizing Social Security, died Wednesday at his home in Bowie, Md. He was 93.

The cause was congestive heart failure, his son, Jonathan, said.

“Bob Ball left an indelible mark on the Social Security program and the agency in that he played a critical role in the establishment of Medicare,” the current commissioner, Michael J. Astrue, said Wednesday in a statement. “His commitment to Social Security was unequaled.”

Mr. Ball was commissioner from 1962 to 1973, but his advocacy for preserving the program went well beyond his retirement from public service.
Read entire article at NYT