The Four Freedoms Foundation and Roosevelt Island - William vanden Heuval

Wednesday, June 23, 2010, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting my show, The Advocates on WVOX- 1460 AM, my guest is diplomat, scholar, businessman and former Ambassador William vanden Heuval. Our subject is the Four Freedoms Foundation, FDR and the new memorial dedicated to him that will be erected on Roosevelt Island.                                                                                          

Throughout his distinguished career as a lawyer, diplomat, businessman, and scholar, Ambassador William J. vanden Heuvel has worked tirelessly to realize Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s ideals of social justice, human rights, and collaboration among nations.

Born in Rochester, New York, in 1930 of immigrant parents, William vanden Heuvel attended public schools and worked his way through university, graduating Deep Springs College, Cornell University and Cornell Law School where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Cornell Law Review. He began his career in public service as Executive Assistant to William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan during General Donovan’s ambassadorship to Thailand, and subsequently served as Counsel to New York State Governor Averell Harriman.

In 1964, as Assistant to U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Mr. vanden Heuvel led the efforts to defeat local resistance to school desegregation in Prince Edward County, Virginia. A Supreme Court landmark secured the legacy of Brown vs. Board of Education and restored free public education to thousands of black children who had been without it since 1959 when the County closed its schools rather than desegregate them. The establishment of the Prince Edward County Free Schools System in 1963, for which Ambassador vanden Heuvel was singularly responsible, is considered a landmark in the civil rights struggle.

As Chairman of the New York City Board of Corrections in the early 1970s, he led a campaign to investigate and ameliorate conditions in the city’s overcrowded prison system and has had a lifelong involvement in the reform of the criminal justice system.

During the Carter Administration, Mr. vanden Heuvel was U.S. Permanent Representative to the European Office of the United Nations in Geneva and U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Ambassador vanden Heuvel has eloquently defended the UN’s mission and importance with leadership roles in the United Nations Association/USA and the World Federation of United Nations Associations. As Co-Chair of the Council of American Ambassadors, he has written reports on Israel and Cuba, and reported on the Northern Ireland Peace Process.

Ambassador vanden Heuvel has served since 1955 as a director of the International Rescue Committee, a non-profit agency assisting refugees from political persecution and violent conflict.  In 1956, he traveled to Hungary and Austria to aid refugees of the Hungarian Revolution.  As President of IRC, he later organized efforts on behalf of Cuban, Chinese, Angolan, and Eastern European refugees. He serves on the Advisory Board of the International League for Human Rights, and has pressed for the U.S. to play a greater role in the developing world. “If we are unable to identify our own well-being in strengthening the economic foundations of the developing world,” he wrote in 1981, “then we are doomed to pay a price that dollars alone will not begin to measure.”

Ambassador vanden Heuvel was a Senior Partner at the law firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, where he practiced international and corporate law.  He is currently Senior Counsel to the firm. He has held directorships in a number of public companies, among them the U.S. Banknote Corporation, Time Warner, Inc., and the North Aegean Petroleum company, and is currently Director of several prominent energy corporations. Since 1984 he has been a Senior Advisor to the investment banking firm Allen & Company.

As President of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute since 1984, and Chairman of the Board since 2000, Ambassador vanden Heuvel has presided over a range of academic conferences and initiatives relating to the Roosevelt Era, and helped to establish the Institute’s Roosevelt Study Centers in the Netherlands, Russia, and South Korea. With Ms. Anne Roosevelt, Ambassador Vanden Heuvel annually presents the prestigious FDR Four Freedoms Medals to outstanding individuals and organizations whose work embodies a commitment to the ideals that President Roosevelt expounded in his historic “Four Freedoms” address of 1941.

Ambassador vanden Heuvel has coauthored a biography of Robert F. Kennedy, and has written frequently on international affairs and the FDR legacy. In 2000 he edited a widely acclaimed book of essays examining current prospects for Russian political and democratic reforms, and he is Co-Editor, with historians Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Douglas Brinkley, of the St. Martin’s Press Series on American Diplomatic History.

Ambassador vanden Heuvel currently lives in New York City with his wife, the former Melinda Fuller of Boston.  He has four children: Katrina and Wendy vanden Heuvel, Ashley von Perfall and John vanden Heuvel Pierce.