Quinn Tamm

Who was Quinn Tamm?

Quinn Tamm was an assistant director for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and later influential executive director of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Tamm's older brother Edward Allen Tamm was also an FBI official and later a federal judge.

Born in Seattle, Washington, Tamm graduated from the University of Virginia. Tamm entered the FBI in 1934, and by 1938 had become what was the youngest person promoted to inspector. Tamm worked the Identification Division for seventeen years until moving up to assistant director of the Training and Inspection Division in 1951. During his tenure as assistant director, Tamm had a tumultuous relationship with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who instructed Tamm to influence IACP activities, such as controlling the election of officers. In 1961 Tamm resigned from the FBI and was elected executive director of the IACP, where he "turned it from a genial club to a highly expert organization." When Tamm joined the IACP they had six full-time staff in makeshift offices, but within five years they had 70 staff and their own building. Hoover considered Tamm a personal threat to his law enforcement power and personally considered Tamm to be his third most hated enemy. Tamm died January 23, 1986 at Washington Suburban Hospital after suffering a heart attack.