Ridgway Brewster Knight (June 12, 1911 – August 14, 2001) was a French-born American diplomat who served as Ambassador to Syria (1961–1965),

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

(1965–1969) and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

(1969–1973).

Early life and career

The son of American parents living in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

(painter

Louis Aston Knight Louis Aston Knight (1873 — 1948) was a French-born American artist noted for his paintings of landscapes. One of his paintings, ''The Afterglow,'' was purchased by U.S. President Warren G. Harding in 1922 to hang in the White House. Biograph ...

and Caroline Ridgeway Brewster), he studied and graduated from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

in 1931. Following his studies, Knight began importing

French wine French wine is produced all throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world, along with Italian, Spanish, and America ...

to the US. He was vice consul in Casablanca, and in 1942 took part in organizing the US landing in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

. Knight served as U.S. ambassador to several countries, and later served as president of the American Club of Paris (1984–1989). From 1973 to 1981, he worked for Chase Manhattan Bank .

Personal life and death

Knight married Christine Saint-Léger at Inxent on February 19, 1983. His grandson, Ridgway B. Knight 3rd, married Patricia Wachtell on May 30, 1987. He died in Inxent, at the age of 90.

References

Sources

* * *
"AMBASSADOR RIDGWAY B. KNIGHT"
''The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training''
The John F. Kennedy National Security Files, 1961–1963
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Ridgway B. 1911 births 2001 deaths People from New York (state) Harvard Business School alumni Ambassadors of the United States to Belgium Ambassadors of the United States to Portugal Ambassadors of the United States to Syria American expatriates in France