Raymond Blaine Fosdick

Raymond Blaine Fosdick (1883-1972), American lawyer and administrator. Fosdick was born in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Princeton University in New Jersey in 1905, was admitted to the bar in 1908, and served as assistant corporation counsel and commissioner of accounts for New York City from 1908 to 1913. In 1912 he was comptroller of the finance committee of the Democratic National Committee. He went to Europe in 1913 as a representative of the Rockefeller Bureau of Social Hygiene to study police organizations. From 1915 to 1916 he served on the New York City Board of Education. During World War I (1914-1918) Fosdick held several posts in the War and Navy departments. He was undersecretary general of the League of Nations in 1919 and 1920, after which he resumed his law practice in New York City. He served as president of the Rockefeller Foundation and of the General Education Board from 1935 to 1948, after which he retired.

Fosdick’s books and articles have helped develop better police education and police systems in the United States. He also wrote about controlling the sale and use of beverage alcohol and argued the importance of maintaining peaceful international relations. His autobiography, Chronicle of a Generation, was published in 1958.