Christian A. Herter, Jr.

Christian A. Herter Jr. (died in 2007) "a lawyer and onetime politician who taught at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, worked for the State Department and served on environmental panels and commissions...

"Mr. Herter was the son and namesake of the U.S. secretary of state from 1959 to 1961. His father, a Massachusetts Republican, had also served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governor.

"Starting in 1982, Mr. Herter spent about 20 years teaching international environmental law at SAIS. He was a deputy U.S. commissioner on the International Whaling Commission in the 1980s. Earlier, he was a deputy assistant secretary of state for environmental and population affairs.

"Christian Archibald Herter Jr. was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and grew up in Washington and Massachusetts. He descended on his mother's side from Charles A. Pratt, a partner in Standard Oil of New Jersey and founder of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

"He was a 1941 graduate of Harvard University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a 1948 graduate of Harvard's law school.

"During World War II, he served in the Army in Europe, and his decorations included three awards of the Bronze Star as well as the Purple Heart.

"After law school, he worked for a Boston law firm and was elected to the Massachusetts state legislature as a Republican. He later said he resigned from office because "I was almost unanimously regarded as a spokesman for my father," who was then governor.

"In the mid-1950s, he worked in Washington as administrative assistant to then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon and general counsel to the Foreign Operations Administration, a foreign aid program then led by perennial presidential candidate Harold E. Stassen.

"In 1956, Mr. Herter was elected to the State Executive Council, a governors advisory group. He also returned to his old law firm, Bingham, Dana & Gould, where he became an authority on helping U.S. companies trying to expand into the international market.

"In the 1960s, Mr. Herter lost a race for Massachusetts attorney general and moved to New York to work for Mobil Oil as a government relations and public affairs executive. In 1967, Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed Mr. Herter to chair the New York Urban Coalition as a way for government, labor and business officials to aid the city's poorest neighborhoods.

"He worked for the State Department in the 1970s and among other duties chaired conferences on endangered species and the law of the seas. He also chaired a commission to monitor Canadian-U.S. international boundary waters.

"His memberships included the Council on Foreign Relations, the Metropolitan Club, the Cosmos Club and the Chevy Chase Club.

"His marriages to Suzanne Clery Herter and Susan Cable Herter ended in divorce.

"Survivors include his wife of 21 years, Catherine Hooker Herter of Washington; three children from his first marriage, Jamison H. Cherington of Calais, Vt., Christian A. Herter III of Freeport, Maine, and Dr. Geoffrey E. Herter of Essex, Conn.; four stepchildren, Mark Cameron of Providence, R.I., Anne Cameron of Bridgewater, Conn., Juan Cameron of Washington and Elizabeth Cameron of Larchmont, N.Y.; two brothers; a sister; 16 grandchildren; and two great-granddaughters."


 * Honorary Director, Atlantic Council of the United States
 * Emeriti Director, Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation

His father was Christian Archibald Herter.