The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers

William vanden Heuvel (1930- )

William vanden Heuvel, originally from Rochester, New York, was educated at Cornell University and Cornell Law school, where he was editor of the Law Review. In 1952 he joined the law firm of Donovan, Leisure, Newton and Irvine, and served as executive assistant to U.S. ambassador to Thailand William J. Donovan. From 1961 to 1964, as special assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, vanden Heuvel played the key role in orchestrating the desegregation of the recalcitrant Prince Edward County, Virginia, school system, thereby expanding the scope of the Brown decision. After leaving the justice department, vanden Heuvel remained actively involved with many public and private organizations, including service as chair of the United Nations Association, the New York City Board of Corrections, the International Refugee Committee and as vice president of the 1967 New York State Constitutional Convention and special counsel to Governor Averell Harriman. His current public service includes the Council on Foreign Relations, the International League for Human Rights, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, and the Institute for Democracy Studies, as well as several other related associations. In 1977 he accepted an appointment as ambassador to the United Nations' European Offices and, in 1979, became U. S. deputy representative to the United Nations in New York. Ambassador vanden Heuvel has been President of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI) since its creation in 1987. He is a senior partner in the Manhattan-based law firm, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, as well as co-chairman of the Council of American Ambassadors.

Source: American National Biography Online. Internet on-line. Available From http://www.anb.org.

Published by the Model Editions Partnership

Recommended citation: Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and the Election of 1960: A Project of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, ed. by Allida Black, June Hopkins, John Sears, Christopher Alhambra, Mary Jo Binker, Christopher Brick, John S. Emrich, Eugenia Gusev, Kristen E. Gwinn, and Bryan D. Peery (Columbia, S.C.: Model Editions Partnership, 2003). Electronic version based on unpublished letters. .

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