George C. McGhee

George Crews McGhee (March 10, 1912 – July 4, 2005) was an American oilman and a career diplomat in the United States foreign service.

George C. McGhee
13th Counselor of the United States Department of State
In office February 16, 1961 – December 3, 1961
President	John F. Kennedy
Preceded by	Theodore Achilles
Succeeded by	Walt Whitman Rostow
5th Director of Policy Planning
In office February 13, 1961 – November 29, 1961
President	John F. Kennedy
Preceded by	Gerard C. Smith
Succeeded by	Walt Whitman Rostow
3rd Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
In office December 4, 1961 – March 27, 1963
President	John F. Kennedy
Preceded by	Livingston T. Merchant
Succeeded by	W. Averell Harriman
1st Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs
In office June 28, 1949 – December 19, 1951
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Henry A. Byroade
8th United States Ambassador to Turkey
In office January 15, 1952 – June 19, 1953
President	Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded by	George Wadsworth
Succeeded by	Avra M. Warren
4th United States Ambassador to West Germany
In office May 18, 1963 – May 21, 1968
President	John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	Walter C. Dowling
Succeeded by	Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
Personal details
Born	(1912-03-10)March 10, 1912 Waco, Texas, U.S.
Died	July 4, 2005(2005-07-04) (aged 93) Leesburg, Virginia, U.S.
Spouse	Cecelia DeGolyer
Profession	Oilman, Diplomat

Early life

McGhee was born on March 10, 1912, in Waco, Texas, the son of a Waco banker. He studied at the University of Oklahoma, graduating with a degree in geology in 1933. He was initiated into the Oklahoma Kappa chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at OU. For a time McGhee worked for Conoco, on a crew that made the first oil discovery on the Gulf Coast using reflection seismology. He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship, and earned a doctorate in physical sciences from Oxford University in 1937. Back in the United States he became vice president of the National Geophysical Company, where he managed reflection seismology surveys in Cuba. On his return to Texas, McGhee found employment with Everette Lee DeGolyer's oil services company DeGolyer and MacNaughton, scouting oilfields and marrying DeGolyer's daughter Cecilia. McGhee described Cecilia as "the most beautiful and richest girl in Texas." In 1940 McGhee established his own company, the McGhee Production Company, and soon discovered a major oil field at Lake Charles, Louisiana, which made his fortune.

Wartime service

At the beginning of World War II McGhee was a member of the staff of the Office of Production Management and a member of the War Production Board. Commissioned into the U.S. Navy, McGhee served as a naval air intelligence officer on the staff of Army Air Force General Curtis E. LeMay, for which he was awarded the Legion of Merit.

Diplomatic career

Following the war he was recruited to the U.S. State Department by then-Undersecretary of State William L. Clayton, joining in 1946. McGhee initially traveled on behalf of the State Department to disburse a fund of $400 million in economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey, as well as other economic aid in Africa and the Middle East. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Turkey in 1952–1953, where he supported their successful bid for NATO membership. While in Turkey, the McGhees lived in Alanya in an Ottoman-era villa they named "Turkish Delight."

McGhee was instrumental in dealings with the Republic of the Congo and the Dominican Republic in the early 1960s. From November 1961 to April 1963, he served as the third ever Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, during the Kennedy Administration (later to be replaced by W. Averell Harriman). President Kennedy had left this office vacant since January 1961 until McGhee was persuaded to take the position. Following that position, he was again named Ambassador to West Germany from 1963 to 1968.

Retirement

After retiring in 1969, McGhee served on corporate boards of Mobil, Procter and Gamble and Trans World Airlines.

From 1970 to 1974, McGhee was head of the Federal City Council, a group of business, civic, education, and other leaders interested in economic development in Washington, D.C.

McGhee was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1993.

In retirement McGhee wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, entitled The Dance of the Billions: A Novel About Texas, Houston, and Oil (1990), whose lack of success was attributed by his family to its puritanical tone. His 2001 memoir was entitled I Did It This Way.

In 1989, McGhee donated his villa in Alanya, Turkey to Georgetown University. Today it is known as the McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, and welcomes students each spring. His estate, Farmer's Delight in Loudoun County, Virginia, is operated by the McGhee Foundation as a museum, research center and meeting facility. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

McGhee died of pneumonia on July 4, 2005, at the age of 93 at Loudoun Hospital Center in Leesburg, Virginia.

External links

• McGhee biography at the McGhee Foundation
• Washington Post Obituary
• Interview with Ambassador McGhee
• George C. McGhee papers at the Truman Library
• George C. McGhee papers at Georgetown University Archived 2014-02-17 at the Wayback Machine
• The George C. McGhee Collection at the University of Oklahoma Archived 2014-05-14 at the Wayback Machine
• Oral History Interview with George C. McGhee, from the Truman Library
• Appearances on C-SPAN