Dempster McIntosh

Dempster McIntosh (17 January 1896 – 6 May 1984) was an American business executive and diplomat, serving as the United States Ambassador to Uruguay, Venezuela, and Colombia. He was also the President of Philco from 1943 to 1953 and Manager of the Development Loan Fund of the International Cooperation Administration.

Early life Dempster McIntosh was born in Newport, Rhode Island, on 17 January 1896. At age seven, his family moved to Cotuit, Massachusetts, a small fishing village on Cape Cod, where his father was a gardener on the Rothwell estate. In those preadolescent years, he worked as a laborer in the summertime and was generally known as "a jovial figure." In 1908, the McIntoshes moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where, at the age of 15, he stopped attending school and began working. However, Cotuit historian and biographer Albert Crocker Knight, author of McIntosh's biography, From Ocean View Avenue to Embassy Row, has often said that it was the village, with its bustling commerce, rather than Pittsburgh, that sparked Dempster's interest in business. Indeed, in an article titled by The Barnstable Patriot, Knight was quoted as bestowing McIntosh with the title of "Cotuit's own Horatio Alger."

Career and diplomacy During World War I, he served in the Army Quartermaster Corps as a second lieutenant. before being appointed President of Philco International Corporation, a now-defunct electronics manufacturer, in 1943. Now launched into considerable wealth, he and his family, which now contained three daughters, summered in Cotuit at The Pines, a luxury resort located in a historic mansion, which closed in 1958.

In 1953, McIntosh first came into contact with the political elite through his friend and mentor, Pennsylvania Senator James H. Duff, who introduced him to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and C. Douglas Dillon, a diplomat and New Jersey campaign manager for President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

On 3 April 1956, McIntosh left his first ambassadorial position after President Eisenhower appointed him 39th Ambassador to Venezuela on 28 March 1956. At that time, close to half of all oil imported to the United States came from Venezuela.

Having handled the unpredictable political climate in Venezuela, President Eisenhower appointed Mcintosh 18 June 1959 the 25th Ambassador to Colombia.