Benjamin H. Read was born in
Philadelphia on September 14, 1925. He was raised in
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. During
World War II, he served as a
sergeant in the
United States Marine Corps, seeing service in
China and
Guam. After the war, he was educated at
Williams College, receiving a
B.A. in 1949, and the
University of Pennsylvania Law School, receiving an
LL.B. in 1952. After law school, Read worked at a private
law firm in Philadelphia from 1952 to 1955. He spent 1956–57 as an associate
public defender with the
Defender Association of Philadelphia. He spent 1957–58 working as an attorney in the Office of the
Legal Adviser of the Department of State under Legal Adviser
Loftus Becker. In 1958, Read became a
legislative assistant to
Sen. Joseph S. Clark (
D—
PA). In 1963, he became executive secretary for
United States Secretary of State Dean Rusk. During the
1968 presidential campaign, Read worked with the Democratic nominee,
Vice President Hubert Humphrey. He was named director of the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 1969. When
Chancellor of Germany Willy Brandt created the
German Marshall Fund, he asked Read to become its first president. On July 25, 1977,
President Jimmy Carter nominated Read as Deputy Under Secretary of State for Management and, the next year, nominated him as Under Secretary of State for Management. After
Senate confirmation, Read held this office from October 1, 1978, until January 19, 1981. During the
Iran hostage crisis, Read was part of the State Department team dedicated to freeing the hostages. After leaving government service, Read dedicated himself to
environmental issues. He was a driving force behind the
Earth Summit, held in
Rio de Janeiro in June 1992.> He was the president of
Ecofund '92, a group founded in connection with the Earth Summit. Read died of complications from
liver disease at
George Washington University Hospital in
Washington, D.C., on March 18, 1993. ==References==