John Campbell White

John Campbell White (March 17, 1884 – June 11, 1967) was a prominent United States diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Haiti (1941–1944) and Peru (1944–1945). and Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd (1853–1916). His father was a diplomat during the 1890s and 1900s who served as United States Ambassador to France and Italy, and one of the signers of the Treaty of Versailles. in 1920. His stepmother was the daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt (1821–1885) and the granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877).

His paternal grandparents were John Campbell White and Eliza Ridgely. They family was wealthy and socially well-connected in Maryland where, as a boy, his father was taken to meet then-President Franklin Pierce and spent much of his childhood at Hampton, the family estate which today is run by the National Park Service. His maternal grandparents were Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (1816–1892), the lawyer and pioneering astrophotographer, and Margaret Stuyvesant Chanler (1820–1890). Through his mother, his uncle was Stuyvesant Rutherfurd and another uncle was Winthrop Rutherfurd.

White graduated from Harvard University in 1907. In 1933, White, who was then Chargé d'affaires in Buenos Aires, was licensed as a third-class international pilot in the country.

On June 19, 1940, he was appointed Diplomatic Agent/Consul General to Morocco. He presented his credentials on August 14, 1940 and left his post on January 6, 1941. On April 14, 1943, the legation was upgraded to an Embassy and he became the United States Ambassador to Haiti, serving until February 24, 1944.

Personal life In 1921, White was married to Elizabeth Barclay Moffat (1898–1993) at St. James' Church on Madison Avenue and 71st Street. Elizabeth, a graduate of Miss Chapin's School in Manhattan, was the daughter of Reuben Burnham Moffat and Ellen Low (née Pierrepont) Moffat and the sister of Jay Pierrepont Moffat, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, and Abbot Low Moffat, a member of the New York State Assembly. Together, they were the parents of:

Margaret Rutherfurd White, who married William Tapley Bennett Jr. (1917–1994), the U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Portugal, and NATO, in 1945.

White died at the age of 83 at his residence, 760 Park Avenue in New York City, on June 11, 1967.

Descendants Through his daughter Margaret, he was the grandfather of five, William Tapley Bennett III of Washington, D.C., U.S. Navy Cmdr. John Campbell White Bennett of Charleston, South Carolina, Anne B. Bennett of Lexington, Massachusetts, Ellen Bennett Godsall of London, and Victoria R. Bennett of Seattle, Washington.