Kingdon Gould Jr. (January 3, 1924 – January 16, 2018) was an American diplomat, businessman, and philanthropist. A

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

businessman, Gould was appointed by President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

to serve as

United States Ambassador to Luxembourg The United States Ambassador to Luxembourg oversees the U.S. Embassy in that country. They supervise the embassy staff in the conduct of diplomatic relations with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and coordination of the activities of U.S. Governmen ...

, a position he would hold from 1969 through 1972. In 1973, Gould was appointed as Ambassador to the Netherlands also by President Nixon, serving until 1976. He is part of the fourth generation of the Gould family of financiers, philanthropists and diplomats, which includes his father Kingdon Gould Sr., grandfather

George Jay Gould George Jay Gould I (February 6, 1864 – May 16, 1923) was a financier and the son of Jay Gould. He was himself a railroad executive, leading the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (DRGW), Western Pacific Railroad (WP), and the Manhatta ...

and great-grandfather

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made hi ...

, with associated generations of mothers, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews.

Early life

Gould was the third child and the only son of

Kingdon Gould, Sr. Kingdon Gould Sr. (August 15, 1887 – November 7, 1945) was an American financier and champion polo player. Early life He was born on August 15, 1887 in Manhattan, New York City, the eldest son born to George Jay Gould I and Edith M. Kingdon. ...

, and his wife, Annunziata Lucci. He attended

Millbrook School Millbrook School is a private, coeducational preparatory boarding school located in Stanford, New York, United States. History Millbrook School was founded in 1931 by Edward Pulling. Pulling was a graduate of both Princeton University and Cam ...

in 1938 and graduated in 1942. He attended

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

for two months in the spring of 1942 before serving in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and was the recipient of two

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, w ...

s and two

Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an e ...

s. After returning from England in 1945, he married Mary Bruce Thorne in 1946; they had four sons, including Kingdon Gould III (born 1948), Frank, Thorne and Caleb, as well as five daughters, Lydia, Candida, Melissa, Annunziata and Thalia. Gould returned to Yale to complete his undergraduate degree and then to study law, graduating in 1951. He was the grandfather of United States Olympic cyclist

Georgia Gould Georgia Gould (born January 5, 1980) is an American professional mountain bike, cyclocross competitor, and Olympian (2008, 2012). She has earned five career national championships – four in cross-country mountain bike in 2006, 2010, 2011 and ...

Diplomatic career

Gould served as United States ambassador to

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

from May 1969 to October 1972 during the

administration. He later served as ambassador to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

from October 1973 to September 1976 under a second appointment by President Nixon, and continued serving through most of the Ford Administration. When President Nixon delivered his resignation speech in August 1974, Chief Justice

Warren E. Burger Warren Earl Burger (September 17, 1907 – June 25, 1995) was an American attorney and jurist who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Burger graduated from the William Mitchell ...

was visiting with Gould in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

during his tenure as Ambassador to the Netherlands. When discovering that Burger would swear in

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

to the presidency, Burger told Gould: "Do you understand the irony, Kingdon? That man ixonappointed me to the highest office, and I wrote the opinion hat forced Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes and papers as evidence in the trial of presidential aides accused of covering up the Watergate scandal".

Later life and death

For many years Gould was business partner of Dominic F. Antonelli, Jr. in the Washington DC parking and real estate development PMI Parking Management Inc. From 2013 until his death, he served as a trustee to the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs, a nonpartisan organization "dedicated to educating citizens about foreign affairs". Gould's donations to Republican candidates and party organs attracted the attention of the media, as for instance in 2006 when the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' reported that he had donated $25,000 to the

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. political committee that assists the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican brand and political platform, as well as assisting in fu ...

. In addition to his business and political interests, he was known in the area as a donor to a range of educational institutions. He also figured in the creation of the

Capital Crescent Trail The Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) is a , shared-use rail trail that runs from Georgetown in Washington, D.C., to Bethesda, Maryland. An extension of the trail from Bethesda to Silver Spring along a route formerly known as the Georgetown Branch ...

; having purchased the DC portion of the newly abandoned Georgetown branch from

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

in 1989, he sold the route to the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

the following year. In his retirement, Gould was known in the

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

-area as a donor to a range of educational institutions. Gould died on January 16, 2018, at his home in

North Laurel, Maryland North Laurel is a census-designated place (CDP) in Howard County, Maryland, United States. The published population was 4,474 at the 2010 census. This population was substantially less than the CDP's population in 2000, and was the result of an er ...

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

at the age of 94, 13 days after his 94th birthday.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gould, Kingdon Jr. 1924 births 2018 deaths People from Manhattan Military personnel from New York City Yale University alumni Kingdon Jr. Ambassadors of the United States to Luxembourg Ambassadors of the United States to the Netherlands Recipients of the Silver Star New York (state) Republicans 20th-century American diplomats United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army officers Deaths from pneumonia in Maryland