George Wadsworth II

George Wadsworth
3rd United States Ambassador to Italy
Acting, as chargé d'affaires
In office October 6, 1941 – December 11, 1941
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	William Phillips
Succeeded by	Alexander Comstock Kirk (1945)
Personal details
Born	(1893-04-03)April 3, 1893 Beverly, Massachusetts
Died	March 5, 1958(1958-03-05) (aged 64)
Spouse	Dorothy Marnard Lasell
Alma mater	Union College
Occupation	Career FSO

George Wadsworth II (April 3, 1893 – March 5, 1958) was a United States diplomat, specializing in the Middle East.

Life

Wadsworth was born in Buffalo, New York and received a degree in chemical engineering from Union College in Schenectady, New York. He became interested in teaching abroad and moved to Beirut, Lebanon and joined the staff of the American University of Beirut as a professor (he served there from 1914 to 1917). To supplement his income, he took a part-time job working as a clerk in the United States consulate in Beirut.^[1]

In May 1921, he married Dorothy Marnard Lasell. She died on November 20, 1928.;^[2] married, May 1, 1936, to Norma Mack, daughter of Norman E. Mack and Harriet Taggart Mack.

He had two children with his first wife: George Wadsworth Lasell and Caroline Harris (née Wadsworth).

Foreign Service career

In 1917, he entered the Foreign Service full-time and served in positions at embassies in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

From 1936 to 1940, Wadsworth served as

.

On returning to the US, Wadsworth was nearly immediately assigned to be Consul General, and then the first Ambassador to Syria and Lebanon, a political move that strengthened those countries against claims by Vichy France. After the war, he was made the first Ambassador to

. He was subsequently in his career made ambassador to Turkey, Czechoslovakia,^[3] and then Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.^[4]

Starting during his time in Turkey, Wadsworth began a practice that would be one of the hallmarks of his diplomatic career. He raised money to establish a golf course in Ankara, which became a "social center" for diplomatic circles. Throughout the remainder of his career, he raised funds to set up nine other golf courses in the Middle East,^[1] with one newspaper describing him as the "Johnny Appleseed of golf courses, sowing fairways in the most impossible places."^[5]

He died of cancer in 1958, aged 64, less than a month before he was scheduled to retire on his 65th birthday.

References

Sources

• Bertram D. Hulen (Dec 12, 1941). "Hull Very Frigid to Visiting Envoys". The New York Times. p. 3.
• "Gets Diplomatic Post". The New York Times. Oct 3, 1942. p. 6.
• "Obituaries". Chicago Daily Tribune. Mar 7, 1958. p. A11A.

External links

• "George Wadsworth (1893–1958)". State Department. Retrieved 8 March 2013.

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by William Phillips	United States ambassador to Italy 1941 Chargé d'affaires ad interim	Succeeded by Alexander C. Kirk After World War II
Preceded by None	Minister Plenipotentiary	Succeeded by James Hugh Keeley Jr.
Preceded by None	United States ambassador to Lebanon 1942 – 1947 First Ambassador	Succeeded by Lowell C. Pinkerton
Preceded by James S. Moose Jr. Chargé d'affaires ad interim	United States ambassador to Iraq 1947 – 1948 First Ambassador	Succeeded by Edward S. Crocker
Preceded by Edwin C. Wilson	United States Ambassador to Turkey 1948 – 1952	Succeeded by George C. McGhee
Preceded by Ellis O. Briggs	United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia 1952 – 1953	Succeeded by U. Alexis Johnson
Preceded by Raymond A. Hare	United States ambassador to Saudi Arabia 1954 – 1958	Succeeded by Donald R. Heath
Preceded by Raymond A. Hare	United States ambassador to Yemen 1954 – 1958	Succeeded by Donald R. Heath