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Edward R. Stettinius Jr.
EDWARD REILLY STETTINIUS JR. (October 22, 1900 - October 31, 1949) was an American businessman who served as U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman from ...view moreEDWARD REILLY STETTINIUS JR. (October 22, 1900 - October 31, 1949) was an American businessman who served as U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman from 1944-1945, and as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1945-1946.
Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1900, he grew up on Staten Island and graduated from the Pomfret School in 1920. He attended the University of Virginia until 1924.
In 1926, he began working at General Motors as a stock clerk and by 1931 had become vice president, in charge of public and industrial relations, working to develop unemployment relief programs, when he came into contact with Franklin Roosevelt. In the 1930s, he served on the Industrial Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration (1933). He returned to the private sector when he joined US Steel in 1934, eventually becoming chairman in 1938. He then returned to public service, serving on the National Defense Advisory Commission, as chairman of the War Resources Board (1939) and administrator of the lend-lease Program (1941-1943). He became undersecretary of state in 1943 and Secretary of State in 1944. He was a member of the U.S. delegation to the 1945 Yalta Conference. He later took up the position of the first U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, but resigned again in June 1946.
Stettinius then served as rector of the University of Virginia from 1946-1949. A longtime friend of the president of Liberia, in 1947 he helped form and headed as board chairman the Liberia Company.
He lived during his retirement at his estate on the Rapidan River, Virginia and died in 1949 in Greenwich, Connecticut, aged 49.view less