Sol Myron Linowitz (December 7, 1913 – March 18, 2005) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and businessman.

Early life

Linowitz was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.Trenton Central High School Trenton Central High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Trenton, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Trenton Public Schools. As ...

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

class of 1935 and

Cornell Law School Cornell Law School is the law school of Cornell University, a private Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. One of the five Ivy League law schools, it offers four law degree programs, JD, LLM, MSLS and JSD, along with several dual-deg ...

class of 1938, where he served as a trustee.

Career

In the 1960s, Linowitz served as the chair of the

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (ha ...

Corporation. Linowitz helped negotiate the return of the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

under the direction of President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

. In 1964, Linowitz joined David Rockefeller to launch the

International Executive Service Corps International Executive Service Corps is an international economic development not-for-profit organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C. IESC was founded in 1964 by David Rockefeller, States M. Mead III, Frank Pace, Sol Linowitz, and other ...

, which was established to help bring about prosperity and stability in developing nations through the growth of private enterprise. Besides being a career diplomat, lawyer, and one time chairman of

, he wrote two books, ''The Making of a Public Man: A Memoir'', and ''The Betrayed Profession''. From 1974 to 1978, Linowitz was head of the

Federal City Council Federal City Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes economic development in the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. Incorporated on September 13, 1954, it is one of the most powerful private groups in the city, a ...

, a group of business, civic, education, and other leaders interested in economic development in Washington, D.C. On November 6, 1979, the Carter administration announced Linowitz would replace

Robert S. Strauss Robert Schwarz Strauss (October 19, 1918 – March 19, 2014) was an influential figure in American politics, diplomacy, and law whose service dated back to future President Lyndon Johnson's first congressional campaign in 1937. By the 1950s, he ...

as Special Representative for Middle East Peace Negotiations (the

Palestinian autonomy talks The Palestinian autonomy talks was an outgrowth of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty and were designed to lead to a resolution of the Palestinian nationalism in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to The Framework for Peace in the Middle East, on ...

). On December 4, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved his appointment. In 1983, he received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

. He was awarded the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merito ...

in 1998 by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Linowitz, Sol 1913 births 2005 deaths Writers from Trenton, New Jersey Hamilton College (New York) alumni Cornell Law School alumni 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American memoirists 20th-century American Jews Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Directors of Xerox Permanent Representatives of the United States to the Organization of American States Trenton Central High School alumni 21st-century American Jews