David Campion Acheson

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David Campion Acheson
Born (1921-11-04) November 4, 1921 (age 102)
Washington, D.C.
Education Groton School
Alma mater Yale University
Harvard Law School
Spouse(s) Patricia Castles (m. 1943-2000; her death)
Children Eleanor D. Acheson
David C. Acheson Jr.
Peter W. Acheson
Parent(s) Dean Gooderham Acheson
Alice Stanley
Relatives Edward Campion Acheson (grandfather)
William Gooderham (2x great grandfather)
William Bundy (brother-in-law)
Emily C. Hewitt (daughter-in-law)

David Campion Acheson (born November 4, 1921) is an American attorney, lawyer and son of former United States Secretary of State Dean Acheson. He worked for the United States Atomic Energy Commission and served as an assistant to former Treasury secretary Henry H. Fowler.

Early life and education

Acheson was born in Washington, D.C. on November 4, 1921 to Dean Acheson (1893–1971) and Alice Caroline Stanley (1895–1996). At the time of his birth, Acheson's father was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.[1] Acheson's grandfather was Edward Campion Acheson (1858–1934), an English-born Church of England priest who, after several years in Canada, moved to the U.S. to become Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut. Acheson's grandmother was Eleanor Gertrude Gooderham, the Canadian-born granddaughter of prominent Canadian distiller William Gooderham (1790–1881), who was a founder of the Gooderham and Worts Distillery.[2] Alice, a painter, was the daughter of Louis Stanley, a railroad lawyer and Jane C. Stanley, was a watercolorist. Her grandfather was John Mix Stanley, a renowned painter of American Indian life in the Wild West.[3] She graduated from Wellesley College and over the years exhibited her oil paintings and watercolors at New York's Wildenstein and Washington's Franz Bader Gallery, and in such museums as the Corcoran and the Phillips Collection.[4] Her subjects included scenes of Washington, portraits and landscapes of exotic lands she visited over the years.[3]

Together, Dean and Alice had three children:

Acheson attended the Groton School, graduating in 1939.[8] In the fall of '39, Acheson entered Yale University and joined the Naval ROTC. While he was at Yale, he was inducted in the honor society of Skull and Bones,[9] ultimately graduating in 1942. In 1948, Acheson received a law degree (LL.B.) from Harvard.[10]

Military service

In 1942, he was commissioned in the Navy and served until 1946 in the Pacific theater. He saw action in the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Philippines. He was ensign to Lieutenant and served on destroyer escorts from 1943 through 1945. For his service he was awarded 4 battle stars.[10]

Career

From 1948 until 1950, worked as an attorney for the United States Atomic Energy Commission. From 1961 until 1965, he was the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.[11] In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that Acheson was resigning from the U.S. Attorneys office to become a special assistant in the United States Secretary of the Treasury, under Henry H. Fowler.[11] From 1965, until he left the Treasury in 1967, Acheson was responsible for coordinating the Treasury's law enforcement activity.[12] The job included overseeing the Secret Service and the Bureau of Narcotics as well as providing technical guidance for enforcement activities of the Bureau of Customs, Coast Guard and Internal Revenue Service. After he left the Treasury Department, he served as senior vice president of Communications Satellite Corporation, until he left for the law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in 1974.[12]

From 1989 until 1991, he was a director of the Institute for Technology and Strategic Research with George Washington University.[10]

From 1991 until 1992, Acheson was a consultant to the Atlantic Council and in 1993, through 1999, he served as its president and chief executive officer, as well as serving its board of directors.[10]

Law practice

Acheson practiced law for many years at various firms in Washington, DC.[10]

Personal life

In 1943, Acheson married Patricia James Castles who was from New York and a graduate of Bryn Mawr College.[13] Together they had 3 children:[13]

Patricia taught at the Cathedral School from 1959 until the mid-1960s and had earlier taught at the Potomac and Madeira Schools. She wrote books for students of American history including America's Colonial Heritage, Our Federal Government, and The Supreme Court.[13] Patricia Acheson died of emphysema on March 7, 2000.[13]

Acheson resides in the Foggy Bottom section of Washington, D.C., and has served on many government committees including the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle "Challenger" Accident.[10]

Published works

References

  1. Beisner (2006)
  2. David S. McClellan, Dean Acheson: The State Department Years (1976) pp 8–12
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  • Beisner, Robert L. Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War. (New York: OUP USA, 2006), 800 pp.

External links