Jefferson Caffery

Jefferson Caffery (born December 1, 1886 in Lafayette , Louisiana , † April 13, 1974 ) was Ambassador for the United States in El Salvador (1926–1928), Colombia (1928–1933), Cuba (1934–1937), Brazil ( 1937–1944), France (1944–1949) and Egypt (1949–1955).

Political career

Jefferson Caffery began his career in international diplomacy in 1911, under the presidency of William Howard Taft , when he entered the US State Department's diplomatic service as 2nd Secretary of the Mission in Caracas , Venezuela .

He traveled to Persia, now Iran , in 1916, to Paris after World War I , with President Wilson's peace negotiators, and then to Washington, DC , to arrange details for a visit from the King of Belgium and the Prince of Wales . In 1920 he was named deputy ambassador in Madrid . In 1933, Caffery served briefly as Assistant Secretary of State under Cordell Hull . During his career he also worked in low-level diplomatic positions in Belgium, Germany, Greece , Japan , Persia, Sweden and Venezuela.

In total, Caffery worked for the US State Department's diplomatic service for 43 years under the presidency of five US presidents, Calvin Coolidge , Herbert Hoover , Franklin D. Roosevelt , Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower .

In 1971, Caffery was awarded the Foreign Service Cup by his colleagues. He has received numerous degrees of honor and awards, including the Leatre Medal from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA in 1954. In 1949 he was awarded the Great Cross of the French Legion of Honor by the French President .

Personal

Caffery was born in Lafayette, Louisiana. He completed elementary and middle school with private tuition. He was a first grader from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette . He also graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1906 with a bachelor's degree .

Jefferson Caffery married Gertrude McCarthy of Evansville, Indiana in 1937 while in Rio de Janeiro . They didn't have any children. In 1955 he retired with his wife and settled in Rome . There he was an honorary private Chamberlain of Popes Pius XII. , John XXIII. and Paul VI. In 1973, shortly before his wife's death, Caffery returned to Lafayette.

The cafferys are buried behind St. John's Cathedral in Lafayette. A stretch of Louisiana Highway 3073 in Lafayette has been named Ambassador Caffery Parkway in his memory .

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• A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography: Jefferson Caffery; Louisiana Historical Association, New Orleans, ISBN 0940984377 ; Page 141
• Philip F. Dur: Jefferson Caffery of Louisiana: Highlights of His Career, Part I: 1911-1933 . In: Louisiana Historical Association (ed.): Louisiana History . XV, 1974, ISSN  0024-6816 .
• Philip F. Dur: Jefferson Caffery of Louisiana: Highlights of His Career, Part II: 1933-1944 . In: Louisiana Historical Association (ed.): Louisiana History . XV, 1974, ISSN  0024-6816 .
• Robert Foster Corrigan: An Appreciation of a Diplomat . In: American Foreign Service Association (Ed.): Foreign Service Journal . , Washington November 1967, ISSN  0146-3543 .