Robert F Ellsworth

Robert Fred Ellsworth was born on June 11, 1926, in Lawrence, Kan. His service in the United States government includes being Deputy and Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, assistant to the President, a Member of Congress, and (unpaid) Consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Among Mr. Ellsworth's business accomplishments are, being a General Partner at Lazard Freres & Co. He has also served as Chairman of Fairchild Space and Defense Corp. and Howmet Corp. and as a board member for The Hamilton Group, Price Communications Corporation, Voice Compression Technologies, Inc., Warner Communications, Inc., General Dynamics Corporation, Allied Chemical, The Aerospace Corporation, and DBA Systems, Inc. Mr. Ellsworth received a BSME at the University of Kansas and a JD at the University of Michigan. Robert entered the University of Kansas at 16, and graduated three years later with a degree in mechanical engineering. He served in the Navy before earning a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1949. He served again during the Korean War. In 1960, he recaptured a traditionally Republican Congressional seat from a Democrat who had served one term, and he went on to win re-election twice. In 1966, he lost a primary race for the Senate against the incumbent, James B. Pearson. Mr. Ellsworth was one of six men who huddled with Nixon at the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami to choose Spiro T. Agnew as the vice presidential candidate. Mr. Ellsworth’s first marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, the Rev. Eleanor Lynch Biscoe; his daughter, Ann Ellsworth Dowell; his son, William; his brother, Stephen; his stepsons, John S. Dempster III and Will Biscoe; his stepdaughter, Sara Duke Biscoe; and four grandchildren. Mr. Ellsworth went on to a successful career in investment banking and worked to rehabilitate Nixon’s memory as director of the Nixon Center, a research group in Washington, and of the Nixon Foundation in Yorba Linda, Calif. he endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton, and then Barack Obama, for president in 2008.