David C. Acheson, a Washington lawyer who wrote and edited books that illuminated the life, philosophies and predilections of his father, former secretary of state Dean Acheson, died Aug. 16 at his home in the District. He was 96.
The cause was complications from advanced spinal stenosis, said his daughter, Eldie Acheson.
Mr. Acheson practiced law for four decades, including as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in the 1960s and as a founding partner of the Washington office of Drinker, Biddle and Reath. His specialties included strategic advice, compliance and investigations involving corporate malfeasance and securities violations, his daughter said.
Like his father, Mr. Acheson was “tall and lordly — a man with a barrister’s demeanor and a diplomat’s sense of ease,” as Washington Post book critic Marie Arana once observed in a sketch of the younger Mr. Acheson’s life. He had already graduated from Yale University, served in the Navy during World War II and received a law degree from Harvard University when his father became President Harry S. Truman’s secretary of state in 1949.
Dean Acheson, who left the office in 1953, forged a legacy as an architect of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II, of NATO and of U.S. foreign policy during the Korean War and the early Cold War. Biographers would devote hundreds if not thousands of pages to his life.David Campion Acheson was born in Washington on Nov. 4, 1921. His mother, Alice Stanley Acheson, was a painter.
After graduating from Yale with a classics degree in 1943 and from Harvard in 1948, Mr. Acheson practiced in the 1950s with the firm of Covington and Burling. He volunteered with John F. Kennedy’s successful 1960 presidential campaign before becoming a U.S. attorney.
Later in the 1960s, Mr. Acheson served as special assistant to Treasury Secretary Henry Fowler, with a portfolio that included oversight of the Narcotics Bureau and the Secret service.
His wife of 56 years, the former Patricia Castles, died in 2000. Survivors include three children, Eldie Acheson of Washington and Bass River, Mass., David Acheson of New York City, and Peter Acheson of Chatham, N.Y.; a sister; and five grandchildren. From the Washington Post.
The cause was complications from advanced spinal stenosis, said his daughter, Eldie Acheson.
Mr. Acheson practiced law for four decades, including as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in the 1960s and as a founding partner of the Washington office of Drinker, Biddle and Reath. His specialties included strategic advice, compliance and investigations involving corporate malfeasance and securities violations, his daughter said.
Like his father, Mr. Acheson was “tall and lordly — a man with a barrister’s demeanor and a diplomat’s sense of ease,” as Washington Post book critic Marie Arana once observed in a sketch of the younger Mr. Acheson’s life. He had already graduated from Yale University, served in the Navy during World War II and received a law degree from Harvard University when his father became President Harry S. Truman’s secretary of state in 1949.
Dean Acheson, who left the office in 1953, forged a legacy as an architect of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II, of NATO and of U.S. foreign policy during the Korean War and the early Cold War. Biographers would devote hundreds if not thousands of pages to his life.David Campion Acheson was born in Washington on Nov. 4, 1921. His mother, Alice Stanley Acheson, was a painter.
After graduating from Yale with a classics degree in 1943 and from Harvard in 1948, Mr. Acheson practiced in the 1950s with the firm of Covington and Burling. He volunteered with John F. Kennedy’s successful 1960 presidential campaign before becoming a U.S. attorney.
Later in the 1960s, Mr. Acheson served as special assistant to Treasury Secretary Henry Fowler, with a portfolio that included oversight of the Narcotics Bureau and the Secret service.
His wife of 56 years, the former Patricia Castles, died in 2000. Survivors include three children, Eldie Acheson of Washington and Bass River, Mass., David Acheson of New York City, and Peter Acheson of Chatham, N.Y.; a sister; and five grandchildren. From the Washington Post.
David C. Acheson, a Washington lawyer who wrote and edited books that illuminated the life, philosophies and predilections of his father, former secretary of state Dean Acheson, died Aug. 16 at his home in the District. He was 96.
The cause was complications from advanced spinal stenosis, said his daughter, Eldie Acheson.
Mr. Acheson practiced law for four decades, including as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in the 1960s and as a founding partner of the Washington office of Drinker, Biddle and Reath. His specialties included strategic advice, compliance and investigations involving corporate malfeasance and securities violations, his daughter said.
Like his father, Mr. Acheson was “tall and lordly — a man with a barrister’s demeanor and a diplomat’s sense of ease,” as Washington Post book critic Marie Arana once observed in a sketch of the younger Mr. Acheson’s life. He had already graduated from Yale University, served in the Navy during World War II and received a law degree from Harvard University when his father became President Harry S. Truman’s secretary of state in 1949.
Dean Acheson, who left the office in 1953, forged a legacy as an architect of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II, of NATO and of U.S. foreign policy during the Korean War and the early Cold War. Biographers would devote hundreds if not thousands of pages to his life.David Campion Acheson was born in Washington on Nov. 4, 1921. His mother, Alice Stanley Acheson, was a painter.
After graduating from Yale with a classics degree in 1943 and from Harvard in 1948, Mr. Acheson practiced in the 1950s with the firm of Covington and Burling. He volunteered with John F. Kennedy’s successful 1960 presidential campaign before becoming a U.S. attorney.
Later in the 1960s, Mr. Acheson served as special assistant to Treasury Secretary Henry Fowler, with a portfolio that included oversight of the Narcotics Bureau and the Secret service.
His wife of 56 years, the former Patricia Castles, died in 2000. Survivors include three children, Eldie Acheson of Washington and Bass River, Mass., David Acheson of New York City, and Peter Acheson of Chatham, N.Y.; a sister; and five grandchildren. From the Washington Post.
The cause was complications from advanced spinal stenosis, said his daughter, Eldie Acheson.
Mr. Acheson practiced law for four decades, including as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in the 1960s and as a founding partner of the Washington office of Drinker, Biddle and Reath. His specialties included strategic advice, compliance and investigations involving corporate malfeasance and securities violations, his daughter said.
Like his father, Mr. Acheson was “tall and lordly — a man with a barrister’s demeanor and a diplomat’s sense of ease,” as Washington Post book critic Marie Arana once observed in a sketch of the younger Mr. Acheson’s life. He had already graduated from Yale University, served in the Navy during World War II and received a law degree from Harvard University when his father became President Harry S. Truman’s secretary of state in 1949.
Dean Acheson, who left the office in 1953, forged a legacy as an architect of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II, of NATO and of U.S. foreign policy during the Korean War and the early Cold War. Biographers would devote hundreds if not thousands of pages to his life.David Campion Acheson was born in Washington on Nov. 4, 1921. His mother, Alice Stanley Acheson, was a painter.
After graduating from Yale with a classics degree in 1943 and from Harvard in 1948, Mr. Acheson practiced in the 1950s with the firm of Covington and Burling. He volunteered with John F. Kennedy’s successful 1960 presidential campaign before becoming a U.S. attorney.
Later in the 1960s, Mr. Acheson served as special assistant to Treasury Secretary Henry Fowler, with a portfolio that included oversight of the Narcotics Bureau and the Secret service.
His wife of 56 years, the former Patricia Castles, died in 2000. Survivors include three children, Eldie Acheson of Washington and Bass River, Mass., David Acheson of New York City, and Peter Acheson of Chatham, N.Y.; a sister; and five grandchildren. From the Washington Post.
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