Heyward Isham
Coordinator for Counterterrorism
In office
October 26, 1977 – August 1, 1978
PresidentJimmy Carter
Preceded byL. Douglas Heck
Succeeded byAnthony C. E. Quainton
United States Ambassador to Haiti
In office
January 31, 1974 – July 8, 1977
PresidentGerald R. Ford
Jimmy Carter
Preceded byClinton E. Knox
Succeeded byWilliam Bowdoin Jones
Personal details
Born
Henry Heyward Isham

(1926-11-04)November 4, 1926
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedJune 18, 2009(2009-06-18) (aged 82)
Southampton, New York, U.S.
SpouseSheila Eaton Isham
Children3, including Chris Isham
EducationPhillips Academy,
Yale University

Henry Heyward Isham (4 November 1926 – 18 June 2009), was an American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer and editor. He was the negotiator who played an important role in the talks with North Vietnam that led to the Peace accord of 1973.[1]

Biography

Heyward Isham was born in New York City on 4 November 1926. His father Ralph Heyward Isham, a noted retired British Army officer and collector of rare books.[2][3] He graduated from Phillips Academy.[3]

Isham studied International Relations at Yale University, graduating in 1947 before being posted to the American Embassy in Berlin during the Cold War.[1] From 1955 through 1957, he was chief of the consular section and political office at the United States Embassy in Moscow.[4] From 1974 to 1977, after a posting in Hong Kong, Isham was the American ambassador to Haiti.[1]

After his retirement from the diplomatic service he worked as an editor with Doubleday publishers.[1] During this period he supervised the publication of the memoirs of Andrei A. Gromyko, the Soviet foreign minister from 1957 to 1985, and other books by Russians.[4]

Personal life

He was married to the artist Sheila (née Eaton) with whom he had three children.[3][1] Son Christopher Isham was named Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief for CBS News in July 2007. Son Ralph Heyward Isham is the founder and managing director of GH Venture Partners LLC[5] and is a former Fellow with the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the SALT II treaty hearings, who served on the staffs of Congressman James W. Symington and Senator Edward Brooke,[5] and is married to designer and artist Ala von Auersperg, daughter of Sunny von Bülow and co-founder of the National Center for Victims of Crime.[6][7] Daughter Sandra Isham Vreeland was a poet and the director of an AIDS poetry project for youth; she died in 1996.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Martin Weil, "Deft peace negotiator whose other side did not spare the rod" The Age (16 July 2009): 19.
  2. ^ "Ralph Heyward Isham, American collector". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  3. ^ a b c "Miss Sheila Eaton Engaged to Marry; Senior at Bryn Mawr Fiancee of Heyward Isham, Son of Noted Book Collector". Times Machine. The New York Times. April 3, 1950. p. 31. Retrieved 2021-08-31.
  4. ^ a b Hevesi, Dennis (2009-06-23). "Heyward Isham, a Negotiator With Hanoi, Dies at 82". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  5. ^ a b "Ralph H. Isham – Position: Board Member". EastWest Institute. 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  6. ^ Swanson, Carl (14 March 2019). "How Sunny Von Bulow's Daughter Ala Isham Found Her Voice". Town & Country Magazine. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  7. ^ PC Studios (20 April 2021). "This Designing Family's New Collection Brings the Beauty and Joy Back — Ala von Auersperg Makes it Effortless". PaperCity Magazine. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  8. ^ "Sandra I. Vreeland, Poetry Director, 38". The New York Times. 1996-08-06. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-01.


Diplomatic posts Preceded byClinton E. Knox United States Ambassador to Haiti 1973–1974 Succeeded byWilliam B. Jones
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