Carlisle Hubbard Humelsine (1915 – January 25, 1989) was an American diplomat and military officer who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Administration from 1950 to 1953.

Early life and education

Born in

Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States and the county seat of Washington County. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2020 census was 43,527, and the population of the Hagerstown metropolitan area (exten ...

, Humelsine graduated from the University of Maryland in 1937. During World War II, he reached the rank of full colonel at 29, earning the

Distinguished Service Medal Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) is a high award of a nation. Examples include: *Distinguished Service Medal (Australia) (established 1991), awarded to personnel of the Australian Defence Force for distinguished leadership in action * Distinguishe ...

and the Bronze Star.

Career

After the war, he spent six years at the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

, serving four secretaries of state including

Dean Acheson Dean Gooderham Acheson (pronounced ; April 11, 1893October 12, 1971) was an American statesman and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truman ...

and

John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (, ; February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. He served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 and was briefly ...

. While at the State Department, Humelsine was instrumental in orchestrating the persecution of suspected homosexual employees known as the

Lavender scare The "lavender scare" was a moral panic about homosexual people in the United States government which led to their mass dismissal from government service during the mid-20th century. It contributed to and paralleled the anti-communist campaign wh ...

. In June of 1950, he wrote a three-page memo to Under Secretary James E. Webb titled "Problem of Homosexuals and Sex Perverts in the Department of State" which described how the State Department, under the direction of then Assistant Secretary for Administration John Peurifoy, began investigating and firing suspected homosexuals in 1947. Humelsine laid out the agency's homophobic rationales for considering homosexuals to be undesirable as employees. James Webb delivered Humelsine's paper to Senator Clyde R. Hoey during a meeting discussing the Senate subcommittee's investigation into the employment of homosexuals in the Federal workforce. Humelsine then served as the State Department's spokesperson throughout the Senate investigation, which culminated in the subcommittee's report declaring homosexuals to be unsuitable for government employment. In 1958, he began a 27-year tenure as president, then chairman, of Colonial Williamsburg. Under his leadership,

Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...

became one of America’s most popular historical attractions. Humelsine was chairman of the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...

, and a trustee for the National Geographic Society,

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

and Smithsonian Institution.

Personal life

Humelsine and his wife, Mary, had two daughters. He died in Williamsburg, Virginia on January 25, 1989 at the age of 73. In 2004,

Virginia Route 199 State Route 199 (SR 199) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known for most of its length as Humelsine Parkway, the state highway runs from Interstate 64 (I-64) and SR 646 in Lightfoot to SR 641 near Williamsburg. VA 199 ...

, in Williamsburg, Virginia was renamed the "Humelsine Parkway" in honor of Humelsine.House of Delegates Renames Route 199
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References

1915 births 1989 deaths People from Williamsburg, Virginia {{Virginia-bio-stub