Ex-Rep. Edward Garmatz; Baltimore Shipping Figure

Former Rep. Edward A. Garmatz, who represented Baltimore for 25 years and chaired the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, died of lung cancer at his home Tuesday. He was 83.

Garmatz, a Democrat, had been seriously ill since the beginning of the year and was released from Johns Hopkins Hospital July 1.

Garmatz retired from politics in 1972 when reapportionment threw him into the same district as Paul Sarbanes, then a first-time Democratic representative from Baltimore. Sarbanes, now a U.S. senator, won reelection easily.

Garmatz worked as an electrician before being elected to the 80th Congress in July, 1947, to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Thomas D’Alesandro, who had been elected mayor of Baltimore.

In 1977 he was indicted on federal bribery charges of taking $15,000 from two shipping companies in return for his support of a bill that would allow them to dispose of federally subsidized passenger liners. Those charges were dropped after prosecutors conceded that one of their key witnesses provided them with false information.