David Campion Acheson

David Campion Acheson was born in Washington, D.C., on November 4, 1921, to Dean Acheson (1893–1971) and Alice Caroline Stanley (1895–1996). At the time of his birth, Acheson's father was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. His parents had three children: (1) Jane Acheson (1919–2003), who married Dudley Brown (?-1975), (2) David Campion Acheson, and (3) Mary Eleanor Acheson (born 1924), who married William Bundy (1917–2000), an attorney, analyst with the CIA, and foreign affairs adviser to presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson That fall, Acheson entered Yale University and joined the Naval ROTC. While he was at Yale, he was inducted in the honor society of Skull and Bones, ultimately graduating in 1942. In 1948, Acheson received a LL.B. from Harvard Law School. Acheson's mother, Alice, was a painter, and his maternal grandparents were Louis Stanley, a railroad lawyer, and Jane C. Stanley, a watercolorist. His great-grandfather was John Mix Stanley (1814–1872), a renowned painter of American Indian life in the Wild West. Her subjects included scenes of Washington, portraits and landscapes of exotic lands she visited over the years. ==Career==

Military service In 1942, Acheson was commissioned in the United States Naval Reserve and served until 1946 in the Pacific theater, seeing action in the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Philippines. He served on destroyer escorts from 1943 through 1945 and rose from ensign to lieutenant. For his service, he was awarded four battle stars. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that Acheson was resigning from the U.S. Attorney's office to become a special assistant in the United States Secretary of the Treasury, under Henry H. Fowler. The job included overseeing the Secret Service and the Bureau of Narcotics as well as providing technical guidance for enforcement activities of the Bureau of Customs, Coast Guard and Internal Revenue Service. Post-government service After he left the Treasury Department, he served as senior vice president of Communications Satellite Corporation, until he left for the law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in 1974. From 1989 until 1991, he was a director of the Institute for Technology and Strategic Research with George Washington University. From 1991 until 1992, Acheson was a consultant to the Atlantic Council and in 1993, through 1999, he served as its president and chief executive officer, as well as serving its board of directors. Acheson practiced law for many years at various firms in Washington, DC. • 1950–1958 - Covington & Burling (Associate) • 1958–1961 - Covington & Burling (Partner) • 1974–1978 - Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue (Partner) • 1978–1988 - Drinker Biddle & Reath (Partner) Acheson was also selected to serve on the Rogers Commission that investigated the cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. ==Personal life==

In 1943, Acheson married Patricia James Castles who was from New York and a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. Together they had 3 children: who married Emily C. Hewitt (born 1944), former Judge and Chief Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims • David Campion Acheson Jr., an architect and principal of Acheson Doyle Partners Architects, who married Susan D. Sturges in 1986 • Peter W. Acheson, Patricia taught at the Cathedral School from 1959 until the mid-1960s and had earlier taught at the Potomac and Madeira Schools. She wrote books for students of American history including ''America's Colonial Heritage, Our Federal Government, and The Supreme Court''. Acheson died at home in Washington, D.C., on August 16, 2018, at the age of 96. ==Published works==

• This Vast External Realm (1973, W. W. Norton) • Among Friends (1980, Dodd, Mead and Company) • Effective Washington Representation (1983, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) • Acheson Country: A Memoir (1993, W. W. Norton) • Affection and Trust: The Personal Correspondence of Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson, 1953-1971 (2010, Alfred A. Knopf) ==References==