J. Owen Zurhellen Jr.
American Career Foreign Service Officer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph Owen Zurhellen Jr. (July 8, 1920 New York City[1] – November 5, 1990) was an American career Foreign Service officer who was the first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Suriname (1976–1978) when it gained independence in 1975.[2]
Zurhellen attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City[3] and graduated from Columbia University[4] and the United States Navy Japanese Language School in 1943.[1] He served in the Marine Corps between 1943 and 1946 and, after leaving active duty and, after serving in the Marines, he entered the Foreign Service in 1946.[5][6][7] He was positioned in various roles in Japan between 1946–1956 and, after stints at the National War College and in Munich, between 1962–1966.[1]
William Clark Jr. said that Zurhellen "was one of the best Japanese language officers that the Service had." He also said that Zurhellen "used to scare people; he growled at them."[8] Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her diary that she found Zurhellen to be "very well informed" when she visited him in Japan in 1953.[9]
Between 1973 and 1975, he was deputy director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under Fred Iklé.[10][11] He later publicly criticized Iklé in a 1987 New York Times op-ed after Iklé, who was then Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, wrote his own op-ed in which he suggested it was not President Reagan's but the United States Senate's job to negotiate arms treaties.[12]
He also served as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs,[5] Deputy Chief of Mission Israel and deputy director at the United Nations.[13]
He taught political science at Manhattanville College for more than a decade after retiring from the Foreign Service in 1978.[3][5] He also taught one semester at the University of Hawaii.[3]
Personal life
Joseph Owen Zurhellen was born on July 8, 1920, in New York City to Joseph Owen and Dorrial Bernadette (née Levy) Zurhellen.[1]
Zurhellen married Helen Audrey Millar on December 19, 1942.[1] They had five children together.[5] Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her diary that, when she visited Zurhellen's home in Japan, "it was a joy" to see that his children were "all learning to be good Americans but at the same time all learning to speak Japanese in the most painless way."[9]
Zurhellen moved to Putnam Valley, New York upon his retirement from diplomacy in 1978. He died of cancer at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx on November 5, 1990.[3]