Mason Sears

Philip Mason Sears (born December 29, 1899 — December 13, 1973) was an American politician and diplomat who served as an ambassador, member of the Massachusetts General Court, and the Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party.[1]

Mason Sears
Member of the Massachusetts Senate from the 2nd Norfolk District
In office 1947–1949
Preceded by	James Austin Peckham
Succeeded by	Leslie Bradley Cutler
Member of the Massachusetts Senate from the Norfolk and Middlesex District
In office 1939–1942
Preceded by	Samuel H. Wragg
Succeeded by	James Austin Peckham
Personal details
Born	December 29, 1899 Boston, Massachusetts
Died	December 13, 1973 (aged 73) Faulkner Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Zilla MacDougall
Children	Philip Mason Sears
Alma mater	Harvard College
Occupation	Salesman Politician

Personal life

Sears was born on December 29, 1899 to Philip Shelton Sears, a sculptor, and Mary Cabot (Higginson) Sears.[1] He attended St. Mark's School and was graduated from Harvard College in 1922.[2][3] On December 29, 1924 he married Zilla MacDougall, the daughter of Admiral William D. MacDougall.[1][4]

He had a son, Philip Mason Sears, and two grandchildren.[2] He lived in Dedham, Massachusetts and died at the Faulkner Hospital.[2]

Naval career

Sears served in the United States Navy, where he was an attaché to the United States State Department delegation in Peking, China.[3][4] Here he met Danish ambassador Henrik Kauffmann, who would become his friend and later marry Sears' sister-in-law Charlotte MacDougall.[3] Sears also served in the Navy during World War II.[3]

Political career

Sears was a Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1935 to 1937 and the Massachusetts Senate from 1939 to 1943 and again from 1947 to 1949.[5][2] Sears was Massachusetts Republican State Chair from 1949 to 1950 and was delegate to 1948 and 1952 Republican National Conventions from Massachusetts.[1][2] He stepped down as chairman of the State Committee after his attempt to liberalize the party failed to gain traction with other party leaders.[2]

Sears worked on the United States Senate campaigns of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., a colleague of his in the state legislature and the husband of his second cousin.[6]

Diplomatic career

He was nominated by President Dwight Eisenhower and served from 1953 to 1960 as the United States' Representative to United Nations Trusteeship Council.[1][2] In 1960, he was Ambassador and chairman of the United Nations Visiting Mission to East Africa.[2]

Sears was United States' delegate to Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie's silver jubilee in 1955. Two years later, in 1957, he accompanied then-Vice President Richard Nixon as the United States' delegate to the independence celebration of Ghana.[2] Sears also served as special Ambassador to Cameroon' independence celebration.[2]

He wrote a book, Years of High Purpose, about U.S. foreign policy towards Africa under John Foster Dulles.[1]

Popular Culture

• W. Douglas Burden wrote of his hunting trips with Mason Sears, to Inner Mongolia and Indo-China in 1922 and 1923, after they both graduated from college. The relevant chapters are "On the Sino-Mongolian Frontier" and "Glimpses of the Jungle" in Look to the Wilderness.[7]

References

1. "Sears, Philip Mason (1899–1973". PoliticalGraveyard.com. Lawrence Kestenbaum. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
2. "MASON SEARS DEAD; EX‐U.S. AIDE AT U.N." The New York Times. December 15, 1973. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
3. Sears and MacDougall family papers.
4. Bo Lidegaard & W. Glyn Jones (2003). Defiant diplomacy: Henrik Kauffmann, Denmark, and the United States in World War II and the Cold War, 1939–1958. P. Lang. ISBN 9780820468198.
5. 1947–1948 Public Officers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
6. Miller, William Johnson (1967). Henry Cabot Lodge: A Biography. Heineman.
7. Burden, W. Douglas (1956). Look to the Wilderness. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 87–143.