The Honorable Donald McHenry

Ambassador Donald F. McHenry was born on October 13, 1936 in St. Louis, Missouri to Dora Brooks McHenry and Limas McHenry. He received his B.S. degree in international affairs in 1957 from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois and his M.A. degree in international affairs and rhetoric in 1959 from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

After graduating from Southern Illinois University, McHenry taught public speaking at Howard University in Washington D.C. for three years. He joined the U.S. Department of State as a foreign affairs officer for the dependent areas section of the United Nations political affairs office in 1963. McHenry worked eight years at the Department of State on the desks of the Pacific Islands, Southwest Africa, and Namibia, and as an assistant to Secretary of State David Dean Rusk. In 1971, McHenry went on leave from the Department of State to work for the Brookings Institution, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which published his book Micronesia: Trust Betrayed in 1975. McHenry returned to the Department of State in 1976, where he served on the transition team of President Jimmy Carter, who appointed McHenry as the U.S. deputy representative to the United Nations Security Council in 1977. That same year, McHenry was appointed ambassador and U.S. permanent representative to the U.N., serving until 1981.

McHenry then joined the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. as a distinguished professor of diplomacy in 1981. While at Georgetown, McHenry undertook several governmental assignments, working as a special envoy of President Bill Clinton for Nigeria in 1994, as a member of the United Nations Panel of Eminent Persons on Algeria in 1998, and as a member of the Congressional Task on the United Nations in 2005. Upon his retirement in 2014, Georgetown University established the Donald F. McHenry Chair in Global Human Development.

McHenry served in numerous trustee and board positions in non-governmental organizations including the International Paper Company, the Coca-Cola Company, the Fleet National Bank, Glaxo Smith Kline p.l.c., AT&T, the American Ditchley Foundation, the American Assembly, and the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation. He worked as chairman of the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Fund and director of the Institute for International Education. McHenry also served as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and as a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Association of Black American Ambassadors, and the Global Leadership Forum.

During his career, McHenry received honorary degrees from sixteen universities, including Duke University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Illinois State University, Princeton University, and Southern Illinois University. He was inducted as a laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln by Governor J.B. Pritzker in 2021.

The Honorable Donald F. McHenry was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 20, 2023.