Dorothy Fosdick (1913–1997)

Dorothy Fosdick grew up in the faculty housing at Union Theological Seminary as the daughter of Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, pastor of Riverside Church and a well-known pacifist. Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr was a family friend and neighbor. She graduated from Smith College, where she was an star athlete, earned a doctoral degree in public law from Columbia University in 1939, and taught sociology and political theory at Smith. In 1942, she joined the U.S. State Department and became the first woman to hold a prominent position there. She was involved in national foreign policy and debate from the early months of World War II until President Reagan's presidency. She helped lay the groundwork for the United Nations, the Marshall Plan and NATO, advised Adlai E. Stevenson on his 1952 Presidential campaign, and served as Senator Henry M. Jackson's chief strategist on the Cold War for nearly 30 years. She was known for taking a hard line against the Soviet Union, and as a advocate for the use of military force. In 1955, Dr. Fosdick published Common Sense and World Affairs. She also was the author of What is Liberty? A Study in Political Theory (1939). Speeches and other documents she wrote for Sen. Jackson were collected in several volumes, including Staying the Course: Henry M. Jackson and National Security (1987).