Maurice Pate

Maurice Pate (October 14, 1894 – January 19, 1965) was an American humanitarian and businessman. Pate served as the first executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) from 1947 until his death in 1965, after being proposed by the Chairman Ludwik Rajchman.

Talking about the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, its second Secretary-General, said, "The work of UNICEF is at the heart of the matter - and at the heart of UNICEF is Maurice Pate." Herbert Hoover called Pate "the most effective human angel I know" when introducing Pate at a UNICEF dinner. Pate was recognized worldwide for his efforts on behalf of children and hungry people.

Early years Pate was born in Pender, Nebraska, to Richard E. Pate and Rachel Davis Pate, of Welsh and Irish ancestry respectively. He was the oldest of seven children, three of whom died in infancy. His family moved to Denver, Colorado, when he was three years old. He graduated from East Denver High School in Denver, Colorado, in 1911, then left Denver for Princeton University. At Princeton he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, worked on the undergraduate Red Cross Committee, and earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics and physics in 1915, with high honors.

He went to work for the First National Bank in Hartley, Iowa, where his uncle was president, immediately after graduation and stayed until the United States joined World War I. After a great deal of persuasion, he worked for Herbert Hoover's Commission for Relief in Belgium, which began a lifelong friendship and collaboration.

Pate worked for Standard Oil of New Jersey in Poland from 1922 to 1927 doing financial and sales work. He married Jadwiga Mankowska, a Polish socialite, in 1927, managed Polish import and banking business, and returned to the United States in 1935 as an investment banker and businessman. Missing her family and home, Jadwiga divorced Pate in 1937 and returned to Poland, but the two remained friends until her death in 1960. He declined a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 because he felt the contributions of the entire UNICEF organization should be recognized instead of one individual’s contribution. of Radcliffe College and president of Sweet Briar College (1946-1950), and served on the board of the United Negro College Fund and the national selection committee for Fulbright Scholars, and was active in UNESCO, which had many concurrent activities with UNICEF. Therefore, the Pates not only had complementary activities but could travel together most of the time. When he died, UNICEF had more than 550 long-term programs and had helped over 55 million children in 116 countries. Nine months after Pate died, UNICEF was awarded the 1965 Nobel Peace Prize.

Pate's organization, the Maurice Pate Institute for Human Survival, donated his property in Redding, Connecticut to the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center of Connecticut (now called Do Ngak Kunphen Ling Tibetan Buddhist Center for Universal Peace) in 1997.