AMBASSADOR LAURENCE A. STEINHARDT
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I?” Rabbi Hillel
American economist, lawyer, and senior United States Department of State diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to six countries
Laurence A. Steinhardt was born October 6, 1892, at his family home (23 East 92nd Street) in New York City. As a native New Yorker, he was educated at the Franklin School for Boys and graduated from Columbia University with an A.B in 1913, an M.A. in 1915 and an LL.B. in 1915 from Columbia Law School. He became a member of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity (New York) in 1909, National President in 1915, and Supreme Rex for life from 1939 to 1950. He was permanent treasurer of the class of 1913 and class of 1915 Columbia Law School.
He was the son of Adolph Maximillian Steinhardt (one of the founders and executive heads of National Enameling and Stamping Co.) and Addie Untermyer Steinhardt, a sister to noted lawyer Samuel Untermyer. He was a nephew of Samuel Untermyer.
He married Dulcie Yates Hofmann, daughter of Henry Hofmann (banker) and Ina Maitland Yates Hofmann, on January 15, 1923. He had one daughter, Dulcie-Ann Steinhardt Sherlock(1925–2001).
He practiced accountancy with Deloitte, Plender and Griffiths, was admitted to the New York bar in October 1915, enlisted in the U.S. Army 60th Field Artillery in 1916 as a private/sharpshooter, was honorably discharged in 1918 as a sergeant Quartermaster Corps after serving as associate counsel on the Provost Marshal General Staff. He served as counsel for the Housing and Health Division of the War Department in 1919, then joined the family law firm of Guggenheimer, Untermyer and Marshall where he practiced law until 1933. Other notable jurists and family members of Guggenheimer, Untermyer and Marshall were Samuel Untermyer, Louis B. Marshall, Charles S. Guggenheimer, Alvin Untermyer and Irwin Untermyer.
In 1932, in active support of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt’s pre-Chicago convention presidential campaign, he joined the inner circle of the campaign executive committee, composed of political notables Louis Howe, Jimmy Farley, Frank Walker, and Ed Flynn. Specifically, with his economic background on FDR's executive finance committee, he wrote campaign speeches on the economics of the time for FDR.
He entered the U.S. diplomatic service at ambassadorial rank in 1933 at the behest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as First Minister to Sweden (1933–1937), U.S. Ambassador to Peru (1937–1939), U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1939–1941), U.S. Ambassador to Turkey (1942–1945), U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1945–1948), United States Ambassador to Canada (1948–1950). He was killed in a U.S. embassy plane crash on March 28, 1950, in Ramsayville, Ontario, Canada, while serving as U.S. Ambassador to Canada. He was the first United States Ambassador to be killed in the line of duty.
He was awarded the Order of the Polar Star in 1936 by King Gustav V of Sweden; inscribed in The Golden Book, Jewish National Fund, Jewish Agency for Palestine, 1944; awarded the United States Typhus Commission Medal in 1945 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt; awarded the Medal for Merit in 1946 by President Harry S. Truman; awarded posthumously the Honorary Doctor of Laws, Hamilton College 1950.
He was the author of numerous publications:
Legal Status of the Trade Union, June 1915
Medical Jurisprudence: The Rules of Law Governing the Liability of Physicians and Surgeons for Malpractice, Journal of the American Medical Association, March 2, 1918, vol. 70, pp. 585–587.
Medical Jurisprudence: The General Rules of Law Governing the Compensation of Physician and Surgeons, July 9, 1921, vol. 77, pp. 98–100.
The Regulation and Control of Physicians and Surgeons by Public Authority, Journal of the American Medical Association, June 4, 1927, vol, 88, pp. 1833–1835.
The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth, 1931
Directorships: Fruit & Produce Acceptance Corp., Lessing's Inc., Louis Phillipe Inc., Leopold Stern and Sons Inc., Affiliated Products Inc., United Steel and Tube Inc., Neet Inc., G.R. Kinney & Co., Jean Patou Inc., Immac Inc., Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.,
Member of numerous organizations: American Bar Association/ Atlantic Beach Club/ Bankers Club of New York/ Bar Association of the City of New York/ Columbia University Club/ Columbia Varsity Club/ Democratic National Finance Committee/ Executive Finance Committee of the Democratic National Campaign Committee/ Federation of American Zionists and the American Zion Commonwealth/ National Democratic Club/ Member, President Roosevelt's pre-convention campaign committee/ Pi Lambda Phi
Excerpts from the forthcoming biography “Steinhardt” by his granddaughter, Laurene A. Sherlock
In 1941, immediately prior to Germany's bombing assault on Moscow and with only six hours notice, Steinhardt sent his wife, daughter and her governess, each carrying only one suitcase, out to Stockholm on one of the last planes departing with families of diplomats to any safer destinations within Europe. Steinhardt then returned his attention to the ongoing preparations to evacuate and accompany the remaining U.S. embassy staff to Kuibyshev taking seven days by train to go some 400 miles east of Moscow to this destination, designated by the Kremlin for remaining diplomats. Once the staff was situated in spartan housing with the entire stock of embassy foodstuffs brought along and sufficient to feed the greater diplomatic corps in addition to the staff, he returned to the U.S. embassy residence in Moscow during the bombings to secure the embassy with a skeleton staff of six. He was known within family circles to say he took great pride in working alongside his amazing staff in his embassy postings. In July of this period, the famed photographer, Margaret Bourke-White, managed to get into Moscow to the embassy residence so as to document the German bombings. On the nights of July 23 and July 26 she and Steinhardt lay on their backs on the roof of Spaso House while she photographed German bombs, Nazi parachute flares, tracer bullets, and anti-aircraft gunshots streaking across the nighttime sky overhead. Her portfolio assignment produced startling visual imagery for the American public in the issue of Life Magazine, Vol 11, No 9., pp. 15–21. dated September 1, 1941.
On January 12, 1942, Steinhardt was appointed Ambassador to Turkey. His mission directives included buying up all the available sources of chrome the Nazis needed for the manufacture of steel for their war machine. Much more challenging was the deep rooted presence in Istanbul of the highest flange of German diplomats led by German Ambassador Franz von Papen whose objective was to bring Turkey into the German side of the war. Steinhardt's mission directive was to bring Turkey into the Allied side of the war. Each was crafty, intense, and possessed with the access to vast intelligence gathering network sources. Turkey was the battleground during this critical period of 1942 to 1945 as so much hung in the balance, not the least of which was Turkey's important geographic location, then and now. By 1944, Turkey had turned west to the Allies, an historical orientation originally seeded by Kemal Atatürk in 1923 to turn Turkey into a modern secular nation while still keeping its foundational character.
While Ambassador to Turkey, Steinhardt, in part due to his Jewish heritage, played a significant but not openly known role (due to his public diplomatic position) in numerous Jewish-related refugee transit evacuations: the rescue of Hungarian Jews from Bergen Belsen, Jewish children from Romania, and many eminent intellectuals fleeing Europe to find refuge in Turkey, Palestine, and the United States. In personal subterranean secret collaboration with the Vatican's representative to Turkey, Papal Nuncio Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (1881–1963), they devised baptismal certificates and false visa schemes to facilitate the documents needed for transit through Turkey for fleeing refugees. Steinhardt sought and won neutral Turkey’s agreement to turn a blind eye to these rescue operations. Cardinal Roncalli was elected in 1958 by Vatican conclave to Pope John XXIII and subsequently was canonized as a saint. The highest note of his papacy was Vatican II, also known as the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965).
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