John Langeloth Loeb Jr.

John Langeloth Loeb Jr. CBE (born May 2, 1930) is an American businessman, former United States Ambassador to Denmark, and former Delegate to the United Nations. He is an advocate for religious freedom and separation of church and state, having founded the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom in 2009. Loeb continues to serve as chairman of the George Washington Institute.

John Langeloth Loeb Jr.
United States Ambassador to Denmark
In office
July 30, 1981 – September 13, 1983
PresidentRonald Reagan
Preceded byWarren Demian Manshel
Succeeded byTerence A. Todman
Personal details
Born (1930-05-02) May 2, 1930
Manhattan, New York
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Nina Sundby
Meta Martindell Harrsen
Sharon J. Handler
ChildrenAlexandra Loeb Driscoll (with Sundby)
Nicholas Mears Loeb (with Harrsen)
Parent(s)John Langeloth Loeb Sr.
Frances Lehman Loeb
Alma materHarvard College,
Harvard Business School
Websiteambassadorloeb.com

Early life and education

John Langeloth Loeb, Jr. was born on May 2, 1930, in New York City. His parents were businessman John Langeloth Loeb Sr. (1902–1996) and Frances Lehman (1906–1996). Loeb's father and his paternal grandfather, Carl M. Loeb (1875–1955), were founders of Loeb, Rhoades & Co. Loeb's mother was a granddaughter of Mayer Lehman (1830–1897), one of the three founders of Lehman Brothers. Loeb is the grandson of Arthur Lehman (Senior Partner at Lehman Brothers and founding president of Lehman Brothers) and Adele Lewisohn Lehman. He is a great-grandson of Adolph Lewisohn and grand-nephew of former New York Governor and U. S. Senator Herbert H. Lehman.[1] His father is of Jewish background.

Loeb and his father share the middle name Langeloth in honor of family friend and businessman John Jacob Langeloth (1852–1914).[2] Loeb received his M.B.A. in 1954 from Harvard Business School.[3]

Government and public affairs

On July 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Loeb to the post of United States Ambassador to Denmark.[4] He served in this post until September 1983. Upon his return to the United States, he was appointed a delegate to the 38th session of United Nations.[5] He also served as special advisor to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller on environmental matters (1967–1973) and chairman of New York State Council of Environmental Advisors (1970–1975).[6]

Loeb was Chairman of the Keep New York State Clean Program (1971-1975). He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1992 and an alternate delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1988 and 1992.[1]

Organization memberships

Loeb is one out of a group of one-hundred trustees who work for the American-Scandinavian Foundation.[7] Loeb is chairman of the board of trustees of the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States (see Churchill Scholarship).[8] Loeb serves on the board of advisors of the Department of Ophthalmology at Columbia University Medical Center.[9] From 1966 to 1994 Loeb served on the board of trustees of the Museum of the City of New York.

George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom

Loeb founded the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom (GWIRF) in 2009 with the goal of raising people' awareness about the roots of religious freedom and the separation of church and state in the United States and the importance of these principles.[10] Loeb serves as GWIRF's chairman.

Loeb Institute

In 2016, Loeb, through the John L. Loeb Jr. Foundation and the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom, donated $2.5 million to establish the John L. Loeb Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom at George Washington University.[11] The institute operates within the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.[12]

Awards and honors

On May 7, 1969, Loeb was made a Churchill Fellow of Westminster College in Fulton, MO, site of Winston Churchill's famous Iron Curtain speech.

Upon leaving his ambassadorial post in 1983, Margrethe II of Denmark awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog.[13] She also bestowed a Danish crest and coat-of-arms.

In 1992, Elizabeth II created him a Commander of the British Empire.[14]

In 2010, he was invited to deliver the Herbert H. Lehman Memorial Lecture at Lehman College CUNY.[15] He also has an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Georgetown University Law School (1980) and was Person of the Year in 2005 at the Danish American Society.[16][17]

Personal life

Loeb has been married three times.[18] In 1960, he married his first wife, Nina Sundby, with whom he has a daughter.[18] His second wife was Meta Martindell Harrsen with whom he has a son, Nick Loeb. In 2012, Loeb married his third wife, Sharon J. Handler.[18]

Loeb financed the creation of the Loeb Visitors Center at the Touro Synagogue National Historic Site in Newport, Rhode Island.[19]

References
  1. Pace, Eric (9 December 1996). "John L. Loeb Sr. Dies at 94; Investor and Philanthropist". The New York Times.
  2. Evans, Eli N; Loeb, John L (2009). An American experience: Adeline Moses Loeb (1876-1953) and her early American Jewish ancestors. Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York ; Distributed by Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0982203200. OCLC 297811130.
  3. "Loeb House - About Us - Harvard Business School". www.hbs.edu.
  4. "Ronald Reagan: Nomination of John Langeloth Loeb, Jr., To Be United States Ambassador to Denmark". www.presidency.ucsb.edu.
  5. "Reagan Appoints 10 As Delegates to U.N." The New York Times. 22 September 1983.
  6. "Nominations & Appointments, June 10, 1983". www.reaganlibrary.gov.
  7. "Board and Trustees". The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
  8. "Winston Churchill Foundation of the USA". www.winstonchurchillfoundation.org.
  9. "Viewpoint" (PDF). Columbia University Medical Center. p. 3.
  10. Gross, Rachel Beth (September 2014). "'Feel the History at Your Feet': Historic Synagogues as Heritage Sites". Objects of Affection: The Material Religion of American Jewish Nostalgia (Ph.D. thesis). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University. p. 118. Document No.3642087ProQuest 1629746283 – via ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
  11. "Institute for Religious Freedom Will Move Education Programs to GW". gwtoday.gwu.edu. 17 January 2016.
  12. "Loeb Institute The George Washington University". loeb.columbian.gwu.edu.
  13. "U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Is Decorated by Government", New York Times, September 13, 1983.
  14. "The Honorable John L. Loeb, Jr". DCF Donor Stories. Retrieved 2022-05-30.
  15. "Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. to Deliver 41st Annual Herbert H. Lehman Memorial Lecture at Lehman College on March 25 – CUNY Newswire". www1.cuny.edu.
  16. "Danish American Society". das-ny.org. Archived from the original on August 2, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2010.
  17. American Legacy Manhattan Society Report.
  18. Loeb website: Family retrieved July 16, 2013
  19. "Loeb Visitor's Center at Touro Synagogue". Northeast Collaborative Architects. ncarchitects.com. Archived from the original on Feb 17, 2020. In 1998, a vision for a new building framing the western edge of Touro Synagogue's property was initiated by Ambassador John L. Loeb who is the founder of the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom. Loeb imagined an educational center that would house his collection of Colonial portraits and explain how RI championed religious liberty, tolerance, and separation of church and state in Colonial America.
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