Henry Serrano Villard (March 30, 1900January 21, 1996) was an American foreign service officer, ambassador and author.

Life

Henry S. Villard was born in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

March 30, 1900. He was the great-grandson of

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he foun ...

, the prominent American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

. He was the grandson of

Henry Villard Henry Villard (April 10, 1835 – November 12, 1900) was an American journalist and financier who was an early president of the Northern Pacific Railway. Born and raised by Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard in the Rhenish Palatinate of the Kin ...

, the American railroad tycoon who commissioned the construction of the

Villard Houses The Villard Houses are a set of former residences comprising a historic landmark at 451–457 Madison Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by the architect Joseph Morrill Wells ...

in Manhattan. As a teenager he served as a volunteer ambulance driver in Italy during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, becoming friends with

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

when both were patients in a Red Cross hospital in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. He graduated from Harvard in 1921, having been inducted into the

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

honor society. During his years at Harvard he served as editor of ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...

'', the university’s student newspaper. Henry Villard was married to Tamara Gringutes Villard (d. 1990) for 50 years. They had two children: Dimitri Villard and Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave, a writer and the wife of American

Arnaud de Borchgrave Arnaud Charles Paul Marie Philippe de Borchgrave (26 October 1926 – 15 February 2015) was a Belgian-American journalist who specialized in international politics. Following a long career with the news magazine ''Newsweek'', covering 17 wars i ...

. Villard died of

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 severi ...

on January 21, 1996 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 95.

Foreign service career

In 1928 Villard joined the

United States Foreign Service The United States Foreign Service is the primary personnel system used by the diplomatic service of the United States federal government, under the aegis of the United States Department of State. It consists of over 13,000 professionals carry ...

and started his foreign service as

vice consul A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, Iran in 1928. In his capacity as an expert on Africa, he was a leader within the Department of State in the planning for the Allied invasion of North Africa during

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 opposing ...

. After that successful operation he served as the U. S. liaison to the

Free French Forces __NOTOC__ The French Liberation Army (french: Armée française de la Libération or AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (french: Forces françaises libres, l ...

in Africa. In 1952

President Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

appointed him as the first

United States Ambassador to Libya The United States ambassador to Libya is the official representative of the president of the United States to the head of state of Libya. History Until its independence in 1951, Libya had been a colony of Italy (1912–1947) and then under Brit ...

, where he served until 1954.

President Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

sent him to

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

in 1958 as the

Representative of the United States to the European Office of the United Nations The Representative of the United States to the European Office of the United Nations is the chief of mission of the United States Mission to the European Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations at the United Nations Offic ...

; he held that office 1958–60. President Eisenhower again called upon Villard in 1960 to fill the ambassadorial postings to the newly independent nations of

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

and Mauritania, a dual posting to both nations while resident in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from :wo:daqaar, daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar ...

, Senegal. Upon the completion of those missions in 1961, he retired from the foreign service.

Author

Villard was the author of several books. He had a great interest in the early days of aviation and authored two books on the subject: *''Contact! The Story of the Early Birds'', an account the first years of aviation up to the First World War, published by Bonanza Books 1968, . *''Blue Ribbon of the Air: The Gordon Bennett Races'', the story of the Gordon Bennett races for airplanes, published by Smithsonian Press, 1987, . Another book was inspired by his experience recuperating from combat wounds suffered while a volunteer ambulance driver in Italy during

, observing firsthand the relationship of hospital roommate

and their nurse,

Agnes von Kurowsky Agnes Hannah von Kurowsky Stanfield (January 5, 1892 – November 25, 1984) was an American nurse who inspired the character "Catherine Barkley" in Ernest Hemingway's 1929 novel ''A Farewell to Arms''. Kurowsky served as a nurse in an American Re ...

: *''Hemingway In Love And War: The Lost Diary of Agnes von Kurowsky, Her Letters, and Correspondence of Ernest Hemingway''. :Kurowsky is the inspiration for the nurse in '' A Farewell to Arms''. Villard's book, coauthored with James Nagel, is the basis for the 1996 film '' In Love and War''. Other works include: *''Looping the Loop: Posters of Flight'' *''The Great Road Races, 1894-1914'' *''Affairs at State: A career diplomat's candid appraisal of the U.S. Foreign Service'' *''Lincoln on the Eve of '61: A Journalist's Story'' *''Libya: The New Arab kingdom of North Africa'' *''Memoirs of Henry Villard, Journalist And Financier, 1835-1900'' *''The Past and Present of the Pike's Peak Gold Regions'' *''The Royal Victoria Hotel''

References

External links

Alexandravillard.com
Very short biography of Henry S. Villard’s daughter Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave {{DEFAULTSORT:Villard, Henry Serrano Ambassadors of the United States to Libya Ambassadors of the United States to Senegal Ambassadors of the United States to Mauritania 1900 births 1996 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in California Writers from New York (state) Harvard University alumni United States Foreign Service personnel American expatriates in Italy American expatriates in Iran American expatriates in Switzerland