Sydney David Pierce (March 30, 1901 – May 17, 1992) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Olympic

hurdler Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...

and career diplomat. He was Canada's first Jewish ambassador.

Life and career

Born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, he competed in track and field while attending

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

and in the 110-metres hurdles at 1924 Summer Olympics in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1922, a Bachelor of Civil Law degree in 1925 and an honorary Doctorate of Law in 1956. After graduating, he became a reporter for the ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

''. He then lectured at Dalhousie University in political science and later worked for the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

. He joined federal Department of Munitions and Supply in 1940 and later became chief of the economic division of the Department of External Affairs. In 1947, he was appointed Canada's ambassador to Mexico. From 1950 to 1951, he was Canada's representative to the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

. He was also Canada's ambassador to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

. He was Canada's chief negotiator at the " Kennedy" General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade negotiations from 1964 to 1967. In 2004, he was inducted into the McGill University Sports Hall of Fame.

References

External links

* * * 1901 births 1992 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1924 Summer Olympics Athletes from Montreal Jewish Canadian sportspeople McGill University Faculty of Law alumni Olympic track and field athletes of Canada Anglophone Quebec people Ambassadors of Canada to Brazil Ambassadors of Canada to the European Union Ambassadors of Canada to Belgium Ambassadors of Canada to Luxembourg Ambassadors of Canada to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Canadian male hurdlers {{Canada-athletics-bio-stub