Selden Chapin

Selden Chapin (September 19, 1899 – March 26, 1963) was a career foreign service officer and United States diplomat.

Selden Chapin in the Netherlands in 1951

Biography

Selden Chapin was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1919 and served in the U.S. Navy from 1919 to 1925. He married Mary Paul Noyes, March 30, 1927.

He was appointed a foreign service officer in March 1925. After the liberation of Paris in August 1944, he served as Charge d'Affaires in the American Embassy in the absence of an ambassador, since France formally broke off diplomatic relations with the U.S. after the Torch Invasion of North Africa in November 1942. Jefferson Caffery assumed the ambassadorship on 30 December 1944. Later Chapin was the U.S. ambassador to Hungary, Iran, Netherlands, Peru and Panama. He is interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

His son was Frederic L. Chapin, ambassador to Ethiopia and Guatemala. His niece and ward is Hope Cooke, former wife of the last king of Sikkim, Palden Thondup Namgyal.

  • Selden Chapin at Arlington Cemetery
  • "Selden Chapin". Find a Grave. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
H.F. Arthur Schoenfeld		 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Hungary
1947–1949		 Succeeded by
Nathaniel P. Davis
Preceded by
Herman B. Baruch		 United States Ambassador to the Netherlands
October 27, 1949 – October 30, 1953		 Succeeded by
H. Freeman Matthews
Preceded by
John C. Wiley		 United States Ambassador to Panama
January 2, 1954 – May 29, 1955		 Succeeded by
Julian F. Harrington
Preceded by
Loy W. Henderson		 United States Ambassador to Iran
1955–1958		 Succeeded by
Edward T. Wailes
Preceded by
Theodore Achilles		 United States Ambassador to Peru
May 7, 1960 – August 7, 1960		 Succeeded by
James Loeb
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