Ruth E. Bacon

Ruth Elizabeth Bacon (1908 – 1985) was an American foreign service officer, a Far East specialist. She was one of the first six annual recipients of the Federal Woman's Award, in 1961. In 1968, she retired as director of the Office of Regional Affairs in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, at the United States Department of State.

Ruth E. Bacon
Ruth E. Bacon as a junior at Radcliffe College in 1926.
Born1908
Died1985
NationalityAmerican
Occupationforeign service officer, Far East specialist
AwardsCarnegie Fellowship (1928-1929), Federal Woman's Award (1961)

Early life and education

Bacon was the daughter of George Preston Bacon and Hannah Churchill Bacon.[1] Her mother trained as a nurse;[2] her father was a physics and engineering professor at Tufts College.[3] Her sister Dorothy C. Bacon was an economics professor on the faculty at Smith College.[4] Ruth E. Bacon earned a bachelor's degree and a Ph.D. at Radcliffe College.[5][6] She was a Carnegie Fellow in international law at the University of Cambridge from 1928 to 1929.[7][8]

Career

Ruth E. Bacon taught history and political science at Wellesley College and Central Missouri State University after completing her doctoral studies.[9][10] She worked at The Hague, as assistant to Judge Manley Ottmer Hudson while he served on the Permanent Court of International Justice. She joined the U. S. State Department in 1939, in the Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs; she was described as "the first female officer in a geographical bureau".[11] She was an active member of the American Society of International Law, including a stint on the executive council of the society, from 1951 to 1952.[12][13]

In 1948 Bacon was a member of the American delegation[14] at the South Pacific Commission in Sydney;[15][16] she also served on the American delegation to the United Nations Trusteeship Council in 1949. She was Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand for four years, and served at times as acting ambassador.[17] In 1960, she was Foreign Service Officer Class 1, the second-highest ranking woman in the Foreign Service.[18][19] In 1968, as director of the Office of Regional Affairs in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, she was the only woman in the American delegation led by Dean Rusk at the SEATO meeting, in Wellington. She said the biggest thing she lacked as a diplomat was "a wife. I had to carry a double load... write the thank-you notes, send flowers, plan guest lists and all the other things usually handled by the hostess."[11]

In 1961, Bacon became one of the first six recipients of the Federal Woman's Award,[20] "in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the formulation of United States foreign policy in the field of Far Eastern affairs." Her sister accepted the award in her place. She retired from the federal government in 1968.[11] In 1974 she served on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, attended the World Conference on Women in 1975 in Mexico City, and was director of the US Center for International Women's Year from 1973 to 1976.[21] She went on lecture tour in Africa in 1974, sponsored by the State Department, and visited South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia.[22] In 1977 she was a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, lecturing at colleges from Vermont and Virginia to Hawaii.[10][23]

Publications

Publications by Bacon included "Representation in the International Commission of the Danube" (1937, The American Journal of International Law),[8] International Legislation (1937, co-edited with Manley O. Hudson),[24] and World Court Reports: A Collection of the Judgments, Orders and Opinions of the Permanent Court of International Justice. Volume III, 1932-1935 (1938, co-edited with Manley O. Hudson).[25]

Personal life

Ruth E. Bacon died in 1985, aged 77 years. Her grave is in Shawsheen Cemetery in Bedford, Massachusetts, with those of many other Bacons, for several generations.

References
  1. "Mrs. Hannah Bacon". The Boston Globe. July 4, 1954. p. 12. Retrieved June 27, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. MGH School of Nursing (September 1917). Quarterly Record 1917-1919. Massachusetts General School of Nursing Archives. pp. 11.
  3. Michels, John (October 10, 1919). "University and Educational News". Science. L: 345.
  4. "George P. Bacon, 71, Retired Tufts Dean". The New York Times. September 20, 1941. p. 17 – via ProQuest.
  5. "Present $300 to Radcliffe Girl". The Boston Globe. December 16, 1926. p. 9. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Wins Dabney Prize". The Morning Post. December 21, 1926. p. 10. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Records Main". Carnegie Collections, Columbia University. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
  8. Bacon, Ruth E. (July 1937). "Representation in the International Commission of the Danube". The American Journal of International Law. 31 (3): 414–430. doi:10.2307/2190454. JSTOR 2190454.
  9. The Wellesley Legenda (1932). via Internet Archive.
  10. "Bacon at Hawaii Loa". The Honolulu Advertiser. December 25, 1977. p. 87. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Stephenson, Malvina (April 24, 1968). "Female Foreign Service Officer Gets to Top the Hard Way". The Central New Jersey Home News. p. 26. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Finch, Eleanor H. (1952). "Annual Meeting of the Society". The American Journal of International Law. 46 (3): 549–552. doi:10.1017/S0002930000039518. ISSN 0002-9300. JSTOR 2194513.
  13. Finch, Eleanor H. (1951). "Forty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Society". The American Journal of International Law. 45 (3): 552–556. doi:10.1017/S0002930000089727. ISSN 0002-9300. JSTOR 2194554.
  14. "Delegates Arrive". The Sydney Morning Herald. May 10, 1948. p. 3. Retrieved June 27, 2019 – via Trove.
  15. Chalmers, Barbara P. (August 1948). "News from the Department" (PDF). The American Foreign Service Journal. 25 (8): 20.
  16. "Keesing Says Hawaii Pacific Science Key". The Honolulu Advertiser. May 6, 1948. p. 1. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. Key officers of foreign service posts. Foreign Affairs Document and Reference Center, Pub. and Reproduction Division. February 1964. pp. 35 – via Internet Archive.
  18. Calkin, Homer L. Women in the Department of State: Their Role in American Foreign Affairs (Department of State Publication 8951, 1978): 213.
  19. "A Woman's World? They Now Help Shape Foreign Policy". The Press Democrat. October 9, 1966. p. 17. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. "Six Women Get Awards". Kingsport News. February 25, 1961. p. 15. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. Valentine, Carole (June 12, 1975). "Club Women Taking Care of Business, but Less Interested in Speakers". The Cincinnati Enquirer. p. 18. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. "Feminist, Political Scientist to be at St. Michael's". The Burlington Free Press. February 7, 1977. p. 19. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. Kelly, Patrick (January 13, 1977). "MBC Students Told Foreign Service Offers Women Decision-Making Jobs". The News Leader. p. 11. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. Hudson, Manley O. and Ruth E. Bacon, eds., International Legislation (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 1937).
  25. Hudson, Manley O., and Ruth E. Bacon, eds., World Court Reports: A Collection of the Judgments, Orders and Opinions of the Permanent Court of International Justice. Volume III, 1932-1935 (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1938).
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