Cornwall Hart Loomis (1894-1924)

From the Washington Evening Star, June 20, 1924.

  Diplomat Cornwall Hart Loomis holds the sad distinction of being the shortest-lived public figure to be profiled here, as he died two months after his 30th birthday in 1924. Despite his brief longevity, Loomis carved a notable career for himself, being a Y.M.C.A. aid worker in Europe during World War I and after joining the foreign service, was appointed as U.S. Vice Consul in Calcutta, India. A native of Parkersburg, West Virginia, Cornwall Hart Loomis was born in that city on April 27, 1894, the eldest of five children born to George Cornwall and Nannie (Gould) Loomis. 

   Loomis's early education was obtained in the public schools of Parkersburg and later graduated from the Asheville, North Carolina high school. Following graduation, he took work as a salesman in Washington, D.C. from 1915-17 and entered government service as a clerk in the War Department from 1917-18. During the First World War Loomis served with the U.S. Quartermaster Corps in Europe from 1918-19, and following the close of the hostilities was affiliated with the Young Men's Christian Association as an aide in Czechoslovakia. 

  After his return to the United States Loomis entered into the foreign service and after passing  examination was named as clerk for the U.S. Consulate in Calcutta, India in January 1920. By November 1921 Cornwall Loomis had advanced to the post of Vice Consul in Calcutta, serving under Consul General Alexander Wilbourne Weddell (1876-1948). Loomis's two year residency in Calcutta saw his health begin to fail in 1923, and by the next year was back at home in Washington, D.C., where he died on June 20, 1924, aged 30.  

  Loomis's premature death was reported on by the Washington Evening Star, which noted that India's climate "is thought to have been responsible  for undermining his health, which resulted in his death." A lifelong bachelor, Cornwall Hart Loomis was survived by his parents, and all four of his siblings, and was interred at the Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

From the Washington Evening Star, June 20, 1924.

Lahtahnius Randolph Higgs Jr. (1909-1981)

From the Foreign Service Journal's 1936 photo supplement.

  Mississippi native Lahtahnius Randolph Higgs Jr. sports one of the most eye-popping first names you'll read about here and hiding behind that bizarre first name is the story of a career diplomat who served as Vice-Consul and Consul in areas in Mexico, Indonesia, Finland, and Sweden. In his later years, Higgs took on more substantial roles in the state department, including time as deputy director of the Office of Eastern European Affairs, and ended his career as a State Department security evaluations senior officer. The son of Lahtahnius Randolph Higgs Sr. (1866-1930) and the former Etta Larina Abernethy, Lahtahnius Randolph Higgs was born in Shannon, Mississippi on September 9, 1909. Despite this peculiar name being shared by both father and son, I have no intriguing backstory as to its origin or historical significance.

  A student at the West Point Hugh School, L. Randolph Higgs later studied at the University of Mississippi from 1927-1930 and in the summer of 1929 undertook further study at the University of Alabama. Following his graduation from the University of Mississippi Higgs enrolled at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, where he studied from 1930-31. After passing the appropriate examination Higgs was named Foreign Service Officer unclassified and in January 1932 entered into his first diplomatic post, that of Vice Consul in Tampico, Mexico. He resided in that country through the remainder of 1932 and in April 1933 returned to the United States to undertake further study at the Foreign Service Officer's Training School. 

  Returning overseas in late 1933, L. Randolph Higgs was designated temporary Vice Consul at Batavia, Java, and just two days following that appointment was transferred to Surabaya, Java, where he remained until July 1935. Shortly before his Surabaya consulship, Higgs married to Lafayette, Indiana native Gladys Marice Weeks on September 2, 1933, their marriage taking place in Chicago. The couple would later divorce and following Higgs' retirement from the foreign service he remarried in 1966 to Marcia Nadine Lindgren (1917-2013), who would survive him upon his death in 1981. Both unions were childless.

From the Ole Miss Yearbook, 1929.

  In July 1935 Higgs was again named as vice-consul in Batavia, with his service in that area extending one year. The following July he was selected as 3rd secretary and vice-consul at Helsingfors (Helsinki), Finland, where he was stationed until his return to the state department in 1940. Higgs' first stay in Helsinki saw him narrowly escape death in January 1940 when an incendiary device struck the residence of Minister H.F. Arthur Schoenfeld. The Foreign Service Journal later reported on the incident, detailing that Higgs had been sitting in the villa's living room just twenty minutes prior to the bomb exploding.  

   Beginning in April 1944 Higgs occupied the role of 2nd Secretary and vice-consul in Stockholm, Sweden, and at various points between 1944-45 held the additional post of secretary of mission in Helsinki. In these posts, Higgs would have a considerable impact, as diplomatic relations with Finland had been broken in June 1944 due to that country's alliance with Nazi Germany. Dispatched from the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Higgs would be sent to Helsinki in January 1945, becoming the first American diplomatic officer to serve in that country since relations were severed the year prior. Higgs would have charge of the American mission in Helsinki until the arrival of Maxwell W. Hamilton, President Roosevelt's designee. Prior to Hamilton's arrival, Higgs would "take care of American political interests in Finland" and also met with Finnish prime minister Juho Paasikivi and consulted with him on Finland's "war guilt."

   In June 1945 L. Randolph Higgs advanced to the post of First Secretary of the American Legation at Stockholm (in addition to his duties as consul) and in 1947 was transferred to Bern, Switzerland, where he was counselor of legation. His time in Switzerland concluded in May 1949 and afterward returned the United States, where for nearly a year he was detailed to the National War College in Washington, D.C. In June 1950 he was appointed deputy director for the state department's Office of Eastern European Affairs, and in 1952 was dispatched to Trieste (on the Italian-Yugoslavia border) as a political advisor, "having the equivalent of two-star rank." This period saw Higgs as a troubleshooter on the "Trieste problem", extending from the disputed border area between Italy and Yugoslavia, and his 1981 obituary further notes his contributing "significantly to the formulation of U.S. policies leading to the settlement of 'the Trieste problem.'''

L. Randolph Higgs, from the Foreign Service Journal, March 1947.

    In 1954 Higgs again returned to Washington, D.C. to serve the state department, this time as a deputy operations coordinator. During this period "Randy" Higgs was briefed on several occasions by CIA director Allen Dulles on possible Russian meddling in Middle Eastern water ports and oil-rich areas. From 1957-58 Higgs was stationed in Lebanon as counselor of legation in Beirut, serving under U.S. Ambassador Donald Heath. This was followed by a two-year residency (1958-1960) in Wellington, New Zealand, where Higgs was counselor of legation, and in 1962 he retired from the diplomatic service as a "senior mutual security evaluations officer." Following retirement, Higgs and his wife resided in Ormond Beach, Florida, where he died aged 71 on April 22, 1981. He was later returned to Mississippi for burial in the Higgs family plot at the Shannon Cemetery in Lee County.

From a 1981 State Department newsletter.

Holdsworth Gordon Minnigerode (1905-1978)

From the Foreign Service Journal's 1936 photo supplement.

   Possessing one of the more aristocratic-sounding names you'll read about here on the site, career diplomat Holdsworth Gordon Minnigerode was a native of Washington, D.C. and for over two decades time served as U.S. Vice Consul and Consul to areas in Canada, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. The son of Cuthbert Powell and Esther Gordon Minnigerode, Holdsworth Gordon Minnigerode was born in Washington, D.C. on August 22, 1905. A distinguished figure in capital art circles, C. Powell Minnigerode was for over five decades connected to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, serving as its director for forty years.

   Recorded by most sources under the name "H. Gordon", Minnigerode attended the Western High School in the nation's capital and would enroll at Brown University in the mid-1920s. Following his graduation in 1928, Minnigerode briefly flirted with a career in journalism, being a newspaper reporter for about a year. In 1930 he passed the foreign service examination and was appointed Foreign Service officer unclassified. In April 1930 he was sent on his first diplomatic mission, that of Vice Consul in Montreal, Canada, and also briefly served as Vice-Consul in Quebec beginning in July. In September 1930 Minnigerode returned to the United States to study at the Foreign Service Officer's training school, where he remained through the final months of the year.

   Named as Vice Consul in Jerusalem in early 1931, Minnigerode entered into his duties in February of that year and remained at that post until the summer of 1933, when he was transferred to the U.S. Embassy at Tegucigalpa, Honduras. His time as third secretary and Vice Consul in the country extended only a year, and in October 1934 began a three-year tenure as Vice Consul in Bangkok, Thailand. In a curious bit of "strange name" trivia, Minnigerode's fellow vice-consul at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok was none other than Halvern Lamar Norris (1896-1955), who was profiled here earlier this month.  These two oddly named men served together in Bangkok from 1934 until Norris's transfer to Belgrade in 1938 and were photographed together at an October 1935 meeting between the American Legation and the Asiatic Squadron of the U.S. Naval Fleet. 

Halvern Norris (pictured left) and Holdsworth Minnigerode, from the Foreign Service Journal.

  Minnigerode continued to serve in the Asiatic sphere after his transfer from Bangkok, being designated as Vice Consul in Singapore in December 1937. In January of the new year, Minnigerode met his future wife, Birmingham, Alabama native Anna Hardeman Meade (1903-1986) at a Washington, D.C. dinner party. Within a few weeks of their meeting, the couple became engaged and married in Singapore on Minnigerode's birthday, August 22, 1938. The couple were wed for nearly forty years and would remain childless.

  1940 saw Minnigerode and his wife still residing in Singapore, and for a brief period that year, he served as acting consul in Penang, Malaysia. The couple returned to the United States for home leave in 1941, residing in Washington from June-October. This time also saw Minnigerode compile an article entitled "Life Grows Grim in Singapore" that would see publication in the November edition of the National Geographic. In August 1941 he was selected as Vice Consul in San Jose, Costa Rica (serving until 1945), and in February of that year was named to his first European post, that of vice-consul in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Minnigerodre advanced to full Consul in April 1945 and in the year following began serving as Consul in Karachi, Pakistan.

  Entering into his duties in August 1946, Minnigerode would be the last consul in Karachi before it became the capital of Pakistan (that country becoming a nation in 1947) and saw the consulate officially be designated an embassy. From 1948-50 Minnigerode and his wife resided in Cairo, Egypt, where he was Consul, and for four months pulled diplomatic "double duty", serving as acting consul in Lagos, Nigeria from February to May 1949, This, in turn, was followed by Minnigerode's posting in Daar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika from November 1949 to 1951, and afterward was named Consul in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

  Minnigerode's stay in South Africa from 1954-56 saw him profiled by one of his fellow diplomats (John James Harter) as an "eccentric, introverted, academic-type person" who enjoyed the high society life of other nations. Minngerode achieved his highest ranking diplomatic post in 1956 when he began a two-year tenure as Consul General in Cape Town. During this time he and his wife played to host to a visiting Adlai E. Stevenson, who had been invited to address the South African parliament. 

  Reassigned to the state department in Washington early in 1958, Minnigerode retired from the diplomatic service that same year and in the following year, he and his wife purchased the ''Thornhill" plantation in Talladega, Alabama, where they would reside for the remainder of their lives. Holdsworth Gordon Minnigerode died in Talladega on February 18, 1978, aged 72. He was later interred in the family plot at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Anna Hardeman Meade Menningerode survived her husband by eight years, and following her death aged 83 in 1986 was interred at that same cemetery.

From the Anniston Star, February 19, 1978.

Wymberley DeRenne Coerr (1913-1996)

From the Buffalo Courier-Express, October 9, 1967.

    A leading foreign service officer in the administrations of Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson,  Wymberley De Renne Coerr was selected by the first-named president as U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay. Following three years in that post, Coerr was named Ambassador to Ecuador, where he continued to serve until 1967 when he was expelled from the country by President Otto Arosemena Gomez, who had objected to Coerr's criticism of Ecuador's then-government. Born in New York City on October 2, 1913, Wymberley DeRenne Coerr was the son of Frederic and Audrey Coerr DeRenne Howland (1889-1931).

   A graduate of the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Coerr went on to enroll at Yale University, and following graduation in 1936 did post-graduate work at the Sorbonne in Paris until 1937. After his return to the United States Coerr passed the foreign service examination and in November 1939 was designated foreign service officer unclassified and Secretary in the Diplomatic Service. The following January saw Coerr named to his first consular post (that of Vice Consul in Montreal), where he was stationed until returning to the Foreign Service Officer's Training School in January 1941. Prior to this training, Coerr married to his first wife, Janet Hill, with whom he had two children, Stanton Paine (1943-2009) and Susan.

  After several months of study, Coerr recommenced with diplomatic service in June 1941 when he took the post of Vice Consul in La Ceiba, Honduras. His two-year tenure in that country concluded in early 1943 and in March of that year was transferred to the U.S. Consulate in Mexico City, where he was vice-consul for a brief three month period. June 1943 saw Coerr appointed as Vice Consul at Acapulco de Juarez, where he served until his resignation in January 1944. 

  For the next three years, Wymberley Coerr worked outside the state department, being the manager and education director for the Consumer Cooperative Corps. After his return to the state department in 1947, he was named as Consul at Suva, Fiji Islands, and afterward held the office of deputy chief of missions at various posts in Honduras, Guatemala, and Bolivia. For a time Coerr was a director of the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, his full dates of service being uncertain at this time. Coerr entered into his first high profile state department post in April 1961 when he began service as acting assistant secretary of state for Inter-American Affairs under President Kennedy, serving in that capacity until July. Kennedy would later appoint Coerr as U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay, where he would serve from 1962-1965.

President Kennedy and Wymberley Coerr, 1962. Courtesy of the JFK Presidential Library.

  Following Lyndon Johnson's succession to the presidency, Wymberley Coerr left Uruguay to accept the Ambassadorship to Ecuador, entering into his duties in March 1965. He would reside in that country capital, Quito, until 1967, and in that year found himself in diplomatic hot water when he was accused by Ecuadorian president Oscar Arosemena Gomez of making open criticisms of the government while speaking at the Colegio Americano in Quito. These "unacceptable public criticisms of leading government officials" drew the ire of not only Arosemena but other high ranking Ecuadorian politicians, who then issued a request for Coerr's expulsion from the U.S. Embassy. Despite Coerr's firm denial on making the remarks (as well as having the backing of journalists and American officials), he was withdrawn from Ecuador in October 1967.

  While his diplomatic career abroad ended on a sour note, Coerr continued service in the state department after his return stateside, being the assistant director for the state department's security affairs group, and beginning in 1974 spent two years as the Smithsonian Institution's international programs director. Having divorced in the mid-1960s, Coerr remarried in 1965 to Eleanor Page (1922-2010), who later gained distinction as a children's author, writing, amongst other pieces, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in 1977. Coerr's later years saw him residing in McLean, Virginia, and would combat Parkinson's disease. He removed to Mexico for treatment in mid-1996 and later died in Ajijic, Mexico on October 5, 1996, three days after his 83rd birthday.

Hooker Austin Doolittle (1889-1966)

From the Foreign Service Journal's 1936 photographic supplement.

  While the word "hooker" most likely conjures up images of ladies of the night plying their trade in the big city, you probably would have never figured on an American public official with it as a first name! Career diplomat Hooker Austin Doolittle was an Empire State native who went on to represent the United States as Vice Consul and Consul General in locations in Russia, Spain, France, Canada, North Africa, and Pakistan. During the latter portion of his career abroad Doolittle would develop a special fondness for Tangier in Morocco, and, following his retirement from the foreign service continued to reside in that country until his death in 1966. The son of Frank Hooker and Minnie Katherine (Schall) Doolittle, Hooker Austin Doolittle was born in Mohawk, New York on January 27, 1889.

  A student at the Utica Free Academy, Doolittle continued his studies at Cornell University, graduating with his A.B. degree in 1911. Following graduation, he was engaged in clerical work in Rahway, New Jersey until 1913, and in the next year resettled in Atlanta, Georgia, where he worked in the auto accessories business. Doolittle's residency in the south later saw him employed with the Retail Credit Co. of Atlanta and New Orleans. By 1916 he had returned to New York, where he took his first steps into international affairs, working as a commercial agent with the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. After deciding upon a career in the foreign service, Doolittle passed an examination and in January 1917 was named to his first diplomatic post, that of Vice Consul in Tiflis (now known as Tbilisi), the capital of Russian Georgia.

From the Canajoharie, New York Courier.

   Entering into his duties in February 1917, Doolittle's time in Georgia extended until 1921, and would "organize the evacuation of American citizens from Russia" that year. Doolittle would meet his future wife, Veronica Bergmann (1893-1976) during this time, and following their marriage in Batum, Russia in March 1921 had two daughters, Katherine Elena (1922-2003) and Natalia Marie Louise Doolittle. 

  In April 1921 Doolittle was transferred to the U.S. Consulate in Madras, India, and in addition to serving as vice-consul in that area later held the post of acting consul in Calcutta. In December 1921 Doolittle was attacked and bitten by a rabid dog while serving in Calcutta, an incident that was written up in several American newspapers. The Utica Herald-Dispatch relates that Doolittle underwent "the Pasteur treatment" for his injuries, and in 1923 left India to take on the Vice Consulship in Marseilles, France.

  Through the 1920s and early 1930s, Doolittle continued to advance through the diplomatic ranks, moving from foreign service office class seven to class five by 1930. This period saw him stationed as Consul at Bilbao, Spain from 1926-32 and Consul in Sarnia, Ontario from 1932-33. In the last-named year, he was transferred to Tangier, Morocco, beginning a long period of service in that country. His time in Tangier saw him designated as the first secretary of ligation in 1937 and in that year briefly held the acting consulship in Seville, Spain. Doolittle would remain in North Africa through the 1940s, and in 1941 was transferred from Tangier to Tunis, Tunisia. 

   As U.S. Consul General in Tunis, Doolittle had a front-row seat to the existing conflict between the French and native Tunisians (Tunisia then being a protectorate of France.) Among Doolittle's contacts in Tunis was Habib Bourguiba (1903-2000), a lawyer and independence activist who had been imprisoned by the French on two occasions in the 1930s. Following his return to his native country in 1943, Bourguiba made his first contact with Doolittle, in the hope that he and the United States would be of aid in the struggle for Tunisia's freedom from French occupation. Still viewed as a threat by French colonial administrators, Bourguiba was aided by Doolittle in his relocation to Egypt in March 1945, and with Doolittle's later role as U.S. Consul General in Alexandria, further aided him with a U.S. Visa so that Bourguiba could travel to the United States to attend the opening session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City. Tunisia would finally win independence in 1956, with Bourguiba serving as its president from 1957-1987. Grateful for Doolittle's input in the struggle for Tunisian independence, Bourguiba later acknowledged him as "my great friend Hooker, who saved my life" during trips abroad to the United States.

Doolittle as he appeared late in his diplomatic career.

  While serving in Tunis Hooker Doolittle served as acting Consul in Morocco's capital of Rabat in 1943 and in April 1944 succeeded to the post of Consul General in Alexandria, Egypt. He remained here until 1947 when he was designated Consul General in Lahore, Pakistan, which had achieved independence from Great Britain that year. Doolittle's final years in the diplomatic service saw him as the United States representative on the United Nations Committee to Indonesia in 1950, and, following his resignation from that body retired from the foreign service in December 1950.

  Doolittle and his wife later returned to Tangier, Morocco where they would reside for the remainder of their lives. This period of Doolittle's life saw him as the director of the Tangier Gazette (a city newspaper), serve as the first president of the American School of Tangier, and until 1956 sat as a member of the legislative assembly of the International Zone of Morocco. Doolittle died in Tangier on November 30, 1966, aged 77, and later was interred at the St. Andrew's  Church Cemetery in that city.

Hooker Doolittle in Tangier.

From the Foreign Service Journal, January 1967.

Ilo Clare Funk (1889-1978)

From the Foreign Service Journal's 1936 photographic supplement.

  What of the name Ilo? Very likely the only American public servant (let alone diplomat) endowed with this strange first name, Ilo Clare Funk was a Colorado native who served as a career diplomat, being stationed as a Vice Consul and Consul in several different countries over three decades time, including Milan and Florence, Italy; Lucerne, Switzerland; Barbados; and Veracruz and Guadalajara, Mexico. The son of Zolman Edgar and Mabel (Nefsker) Funk, Ilo Clare Funk was born in Trinidad, Colorado on October 30, 1889.

  A student in public schools local to Cripple Creek, Colorado, Ilo Funk later attended the State Preparatory School at Boulder and in 1912 graduated with his B.A. degree from the University of Colorado. Prior to joining the foreign service Funk was employed by various mining companies in Colorado and Mexico between 1907-1911, and in the last-named year began his first steps into a diplomatic career. 

  After a period of study and passing his examination in April 1912, Ilo Funk was named as a consular assistant that September and by August 1913 had advanced to the post of Deputy Consul at Milan, Italy. He would begin service as Vice Consul in Milan in February 1915 and upon further promotion in 1919 achieved the rank of vice-consul class three from the state department. In October of that year, Funk was transferred to the U.S. Consulate in Lucerne, Switzerland, and held the vice-consulship there until September 1921, when he was again transferred, this time to Genoa, Italy. Funk remained in Genoa from 1921-25 and during this time achieved the rank of foreign service officer class seven in July 1924. 

  Ilo Clare Funk would marry on June 26, 1923, in St. Pancras, London, England to Margery Nellie Elizabeth Zund (1898-1971). The couple was wed for nearly five decades and would have two daughters, Elizabeth (1927-2013) and Margaret Helen Funk Hutchinson (1928-2011). Following his marriage he continued to serve the state department in Italy, being named as Consul at Catania in 1925 and at Florence in February 1928.

  In 1935 Funk left Italy to assume the consulship at Hull, Great Britain, where he was stationed until early 1940. In July of that year, he was named to his first non-European diplomatic assignment, that of U.S. Consul in Barbados. Having set sail from New York City, Funk assumed his duties that July and remained in Barbados until 1944, when he entered into the post of Consul in Veracruz, Mexico.

  

From the Foreign Service Journal, June 1942.

  Based in Veracruz until 1946, Funk entered into his final diplomatic post in May 1947 when he was named Consul in Guadalajara, Mexico. He retired from the foreign service in 1949 and in the years following his retirement, resided in Sante Fe, New Mexico, and later California, where in 1971 he suffered the death of his wife of forty-eight years, Margery. Funk's final years were spent in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he died on February 19, 1978, aged 88. A burial location for both he and his wife remains unknown at the time of this writing.

Halvern Lamar Norris (1896-1955)

From the Decatur Daily Review, April 9, 1941.

   If you are a follower of this site's Facebook page you'll remember that June begins a month-long theme of unusually named American diplomats, and the first to be profiled is Halvern Lamar Norris, an Illinois native who served several years as U.S. Vice Consul in Bangkok, Thailand and Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Following his return stateside Norris began a new career as an oil industrialist in California and continued to do business in that state until his death from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning in 1955. The son of Ernest Norwood and Elizabeth (Foster) Norris, Halvern Lamar Norris was born in Patoka, Illinois on March 20, 1896.

  Little is known of Norris' early life in Illinois, except that he was later a resident of Effingham and would attend both the University of Illinois and Washington University in Missouri. Following the completion of his studies, Norris worked at the U.S. Veteran's Bureau in Des Moines, Iowa, and in Washington. D.C. for an eight-year period. He first entered the foreign service in the early 1920s and by 1926 had entered into his first diplomatic assignment, that of consular clerk in Tokyo, Japan. He remained in Tokyo for several years, working under U.S. Ambassadors Charles McVeagh, William Castle, W. Cameron Forbes. 

  In 1932 Norris was designated as Vice Consul at Bangkok, Thailand and during his near six years of service in that country took special note of the humid weather, local architecture, lack of window glass, trade relations, and the declining tourist trade. This time abroad also saw Norris accumulate further knowledge in his study of languages, and by the conclusion of his diplomatic career was, in addition to his native tongue, fluent in Japanese, German, Italian, French, Spanish, and Serbian.

From the Foreign Service Journal's 1936 photographic supplement.

   Returning to his old home at Effingham, Illinois in May 1938, Norris gave an interview on his career and his upcoming transfer to Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now in Serbia.) Sailing for Europe on June 1, Norris served as vice-consul in Belgrade until early 1941, and after his return to Illinois made note of Hitler's preying upon "the weaker nations of Europe". Remarking that the Yugoslavs would put up a fight if invaded by Nazi Germany, Norris stated:

"They are a sturdy and hardy people and will probably fight just as violently as the Greeks. Economically, the country has experienced great difficulties since its organization under the Versailles treaty. It is not as well equipped with armament as could be hoped."

  After he returned stateside Norris continued government work in California, where he taught Japanese language classes at military camps in the state. In the mid-1940s he became interested in the possibility of oil discovery in the Cuyama Valley, and, with two partners, began drilling oil wells in that area in 1946. The trio struck black gold, and within a few year's time Norris founded the Norris Oil Co., and could boast of an oil field that produced "about 45,000 barrels a day." With his business office in Ventura, Norris continued to reside in that city until his death on January 11, 1955, at age 58. On that date, Norris was found dead in his office, a victim of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning which occurred due to a burning gas stove in his office, where all windows and doors were closed. Found slumped over a chair in his office, Norris' death was ruled accidental by the local coroner. A lifelong bachelor, Norris was interred at the Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura.

From the Decatur Daily Review, January 12, 1955.

Zern Mitchell Hiner (1899-1940)

Zern M. Hiner, from the 1921 Purdue University "Debris" Yearbook.

    Following on the heels of yesterday's profile on U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg Allingham Burks Summers, another oddly named diplomat joins the ranks of the "Strangest Names In American Political History", Zern Mitchell Hiner of Indiana. Despite his lack of years (he died aged 41 in 1940) Mr. Hiner was tapped to serve as U.S. Vice Consul in Ottawa, Canada in the early 1930s, later being transferred to Riga, Latvia to serve in the same post.

   While information regarding Mr. Hiner remains scant at best, it is known that he was born in Peru, Indiana on May  12, 1899, a son of John and Carolina Emma Zern Hiner. Inheriting his odd first name from his mother's maiden name, Zern M. Hiner was a veteran of the First World War and following his service was a student at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, being a member of the school Agricultural Society. He graduated from that university in 1921 and would be employed as a stenographer, book department manager, and accountant after leaving Purdue.

  In 1931, Hiner, then barely into his thirties, was appointed as a clerk in the District Accounting and Disbursing Office in Ottawa. In November of that year he was promoted to assistant district accountant and disbursing officer in Ottawa, and in January 1932 advanced to U.S. Vice Consul at Ottawa. Hiner remained in Ottawa until 1938, whereafter he was transferred to Riga, Latvia, where he continued service as a clerk and U.S. Vice Consul. He remained in Riga until his death on June 3, 1940, just a few weeks after his 41st birthday. Death was attributed to peritonitis and Hiner's funeral arrangements were "conducted at the American legation at Riga."

  A few days following his death Zern Hiner's body was returned to the United States for burial, which took place at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Peru, Indiana. Hiner was survived by his mother and sister Harriet (1898-1989), the former dying a few months after her son in July 1940.