City native was champion of prison reform
- |Sun reporter
Gordon C. Kamka, a champion of prison reform who had been Maryland’s corrections secretary, has died at his Parkville home. He was 68. His stepmother, Betty Kamka, said she found him dead Wednesday at his apartment. She said he had been treated for cancer. Mr. Kamka was a criminal justice consultant at his death. He had been warden of the old Baltimore City Jail from 1973 to 1979 and wa
s secretary of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services from 1979 to 1981. “Gordon was a very progressive prison official,” former Gov. Harry R. Hughes said today.
During his time in Baltimore, he initiated a work-release program and drug and alcohol counseling.
Mr. Kamka was born in Baltimore and raised on Gough Street, and he was a 1958 graduate of City College and was the football team quarterback. He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Maryland College Park and a master’s degree from the State University of New York. He was a captain in the Army during the Vietnam War and earned a Bronze Star.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Lassahn Funeral Home, 11750 Belair Road in Kingsville.
Survivors include two sons, Brandt Kamka of Baltimore and Christian Kamka of Looneyville, W.Va.; two daughters, Thanh Ashman of Looneyville, W.Va., and Caitlin Downey Kamka of Charleston, W.Va.; a brother, Roger Kamka of Middle River; and five grandchildren. His two marriages ended in divorce.
I just came across this notice today, and am sad to hear of his passing. I’d been thinking about Gordon and about getting in touch with. I had begun volunteering at BCJ in October 1972 so I got to know and appreciate him from when he began as BCJ Warden, until March 1986 when I left Jail for freer pastures, having served as Library Aide then Librarian for 7 1/2 years, and another 4 1/2 years as Administrative Specialist then Administrative Analysis. I learned so much from Gordon’s commitment to, and practice and understanding of participatory management, his gentle but firm management style.
What I learned from Gordon – combined with what I learned at Homewood Friends Meeting and in grassroots organizations – has been an invaluable foundation of my work since – for the past 20 years as Founder & Information Ecologist of a NGO in Consultative with a current focus on preparations for broad-based dialogue and participation in the June 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.
I was a CJ student of Mr. Kamka in 1975. He was one of my best , or should I say the “best” I have ever trained and learned some of life’s most precious values. He was not just a teacher, he was “extremely” human and about each indidual he came in contact with. I remember him taking the class on a tour of the jails,and prison on a Monday night. When we walked in, you would have thought the “Messiah” himself, had come! Well, the inmates were so happy to see him, it was overwhelming the love they had for him, and the love and respect he gave them. I was thinking about him, and happen to look him up today. It was sad to read about his passing, but I thought about how many lives he’s touched through the years. I left Balt. in ’93, and I presently reside in Inglewood,CA. Much love to his family, and God bless.