Henry Richardson Labouisse

Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr. (February 11, 1904 – March 25, 1987) was an American diplomat and statesman. He was the third Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from 1954 to 1958. He was the director of the United Nations Children's Fund for years (1965–1979). He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A lawyer, he was United States Ambassador to France 1952–1954, as well as United States Ambassador to Greece 1962–1965. Labouisse had been the principal United States Department of State official dealing with the implementation of the Marshall Plan.

He was born to Henry Richardson Labouisse Sr. and Frances Devereux (Huger) Labouisse, a granddaughter of Leonidas Polk, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He married Elizabeth Scriven Clark on June 29, 1935. He married Ève Curie in 1954, nine years after Elizabeth died. The marriage with Ève made him the son-in-law of Marie and Pierre Curie. In 1965, he accepted on behalf of UNICEF the Nobel Peace Prize and became one of the five Nobel Prize winners of the Curie family.

Personal life and education Henry Richardson Labouisse was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 11, 1904. He was the youngest of three sons of Henry Richardson Labouisse and Frances D. (Huger) Labouisse. Through his father, Henry Jr. was a great-great-great-grandson of English-American scientist Joseph Priestley. He married Elizabeth Scriven Clark (the daughter of art collector and philanthropist Stephen Carlton Clark) on June 29, 1935; they had one daughter, Anne (Farnsworth), who married publisher Marty Peretz. Elizabeth Clark Labouisse died in 1945.

Labouisse remarried on November 19, 1954, to Ève Curie, daughter of scientists Pierre and Marie Curie. Curie was a renowned author and journalist. They met in 1951, while he was on the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) staff and she was a secretary with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Labouisse earned his B.A. from Princeton University in 1926 and graduated from Harvard University Law School in 1929. He was admitted into the New York State bar the following year. Labouisse was an associate and member of the New York City law firm Taylor, Blanc, Capron and Marsh, and its successor firm Mitchell, Taylor, Capron & Marsh, from 1929 to 1941. Labouisse had been considered for the post by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in February 1959, but his appointment was rejected by Republican national chairman Meade Alcorn on the grounds that Labouisse had registered as a Democrat several years earlier. In May 1961, President Kennedy began to work with the United States Congress to reorganize the foreign aid programs into a single agency. The ICA was eliminated during the reorganization, and Labouisse was named United States Ambassador to Greece. He held that post from 1962 to 1965.

Labouisse was appointed the second executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in June 1965, following the death of the first director, Maurice Pate. During his directorship, Labouisse oversaw the emergency relief efforts for several major conflicts and naturals disasters, and fought to alleviate poor conditions in developing countries. UNICEF provided relief to both sides in the Nigerian civil war in 1968 and to Cambodia in 1979, after the country was invaded by Vietnam.

Retirement Labouisse retired from his position with UNICEF in December 1979, although he continued to work as a consultant on the Cambodia and Thailand operations for most of 1980. After his retirement, Labouisse continued to be active in various organizations, including serving as chairman of the Board of the American Farm School in Thessaloniki, Greece, from 1980 to 1985 and as trustee of the school from 1965 to 1985. Labouisse died on March 25, 1987, at the age of 83.