Emile Despres (21 September 1909 – 23 April 1973) served as an advisor on German Economic Affairs at the

U.S. Department of State 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 ...

, 1944–1945. He was also a professor of economics at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

and

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Background

Emile Despres was born on September 21, 1909, in Chicago, Illinois. His father was Emile Despres. His mother was Irma Rosenthal. His first cousin was

Leon Despres Leon Mathis Despres (February 2, 1908 – May 6, 2009) was an American author, attorney and politician. He was best known as a long-time alderman in Chicago, where he regularly disagreed with then-mayor Richard J. Daley, often engaging in loud ...

. Upon his father's death, his mother married William J. Mack. He attended schools in Chicago and the

Riverdale Country School Riverdale Country School is a co-educational, independent, college-preparatory day school in New York City serving pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. It is located on two campuses covering more than in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, N ...

in New York. He graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

magna cum laude in 1930.

Career

Upon graduation, Despres went to work for the

Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States. It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System, which encompasses the State of New York, the 12 northern counties of New ...

as a special foreign exchange analyst. He established a system for monitoring the volatile international flows of short-term capital during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. He supported expansionary policy. He was among the advisors who early warned that

Hjalmar Schacht Hjalmar Schacht (born Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht; 22 January 1877 – 3 June 1970, ) was a German economist, banker, centre-right politician, and co-founder in 1918 of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner a ...

's system of exchange controls would help Germany carry through economic recovery and military rearmament without suffering a balance of payments collapse. In 1937, Despres returned to Harvard as a consultant in the Graduate School Public Administration. In 1939, Despres served as Economic Advisor to the chairman of the board of the

Federal Reserve System The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

. In 1941, he became a member of the Board of Analysts and a director in the economic division, as well as alternate member of the Joint Intelligence Staff in the U.S. Joint Chiefs Staff and

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

. In 1944, he became advisor on German Economic Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. In 1945, he became a member of the American delegation to the

Potsdam Conference The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris Pe ...

. In the summer of 1948, he worked on the Economic Cooperation Administration in Paris. In the summer of 1951, he served in the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade in economic aid to Yugoslavia. From 1955 to 1956, he served as a fiscal and monetary advisor to the Pakistan Planning Board. From 1946 to 1961, Despres was a professor of economics at

. From 1961 to 1973, he was a professor of economics at

. From 1967 to 1968, he was a visiting research professor at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

McCarthyism

In July 1947, Despres vouched for the loyalty of

Carl Marzani Carl Aldo Marzani (4 March 1912 – 11 December 1994) was an Italian-born American political activist with a series of careers as a volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War, organizer for the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), United States intellige ...

, convicted for concealing Communist Party membership in his application for Government employment. In August 1947, Despres again "testified emphatically" for Marzani's loyalty before the

House Committee on Un-American Activities The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

. During the McCarthy era, Despres was among a number of Federal employees alleged to be sources of information to the communist underground, including

Lauchlin Currie Lauchlin Bernard Currie (October 8, 1902 – December 23, 1993) worked as White House economic adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II (1939–45). From 1949 to 1953, he directed a major World Bank mission to Colombia and re ...

Harry Dexter White Harry Dexter White (October 29, 1892 – August 16, 1948) was a senior U.S. Treasury department official. Working closely with the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr., he helped set American financial policy toward the Allies of World W ...

, V. Frank Coe, Robert C. Barnard,

George A. Eddy George A. Eddy (June 15, 1907 – April 13, 1998) was an American economist who served in the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department between 1934 and 1954. He was in Harry Dexter White's Division of Monetary Research. Between 1948 and 19 ...

, William Ludwig Ullman,

Harold Glasser Harold Glasser (November 24, 1905 – November 16, 1992) was an economist in the United States Department of the Treasury and spokesman on the affairs of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) 'throughout its whole ...

Solomon Adler Solomon Adler (August 6, 1909 – August 4, 1994) worked as United States Department of the Treasury, U.S. Treasury representative in China during World War II. Adler was identified by Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley as a Soviet spy and r ...

, and

William Henry Taylor William Henry Taylor (30 March 1906 – January 1965) was a Canadian-born U.S. Treasury economist accused by Elizabeth Bentley of having been a Soviet spy. Life Taylor, born in British Columbia, studied at the University of British Columbia and ...

. Allegations were never substantiated.

Personal and death

Despres married Joanna Hitt Eakin in 1939 and had three children: Lani, John, and Charles. The Despres Family built the home later purchased by

Eric Sevareid Arnold Eric Sevareid (November 26, 1912 – July 9, 1992) was an American author and CBS news journalist from 1939 to 1977. He was one of a group of elite war correspondents who were hired by CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and nicknamed " Murrow's&n ...

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...

. Despres died in

Portola Valley, California Portola Valley is a town in San Mateo County, California. Located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the Bay Area, Portola Valley is a small, wealthy community nestled on the eastern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains. History Portola Val ...

, on April 23, 1973.

References

Sources

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Collection of works by Emile Despres
{{DEFAULTSORT:Despres, Emile Despres, Emile Despres, Emile Harvard University alumni Riverdale Country School alumni Stanford University faculty United States Department of State officials Williams College faculty