Jens Westengard

Westengard was born in Chicago, the son of Abel August and Nielsigne Dorthea (Iverson) Westengard. His father emigrated from Denmark to the United States in 1863. He attended Chicago public schools and found work as a stenographer. Saving his money to fulfill an ambition to practice law, he paid the tuition to enter Harvard Law School in the fall of 1895. Earning the LL.B.degree in 1898, he graduated second in his class of 129; he entered the Massachusetts bar in the same year. He taught on the faculty of Harvard Law School until 1903. == General Advisor to Siamese government ==

In 1903 Westengard left Harvard to become Assistant General Advisor to the government of Siam (present-day Thailand). Through all this, Westengard, and Strobel before him, enjoyed the confidence and support of King Chulalongkorn. As General Advisor, Westengard was enormously influential in effecting a wide variety of reforms and civil improvements on behalf of the government; among these, in addition to those already mentioned, were negotiating foreign loans, drafting legislation and modifying existing laws, planning water works, restructuring the kingdom's finances and system of revenue, negotiated foreign treaties, and proposed ambassadors and ministers. For the coronation of King Rama VI in 1910, Westengard brought together the largest gathering of European royalty in Asia then known. == Memberships and honors ==

Westerngard was a member of the American Society of International Law, the American Bar Association, Massachusetts State Bar Association, Suffolk County Bar Association, Cambridge Historical Society, Cambridge Club, the Travellers and Harvard Clubs of Boston, and various Asian societies. Harvard University awarded him an honorary A.M. degree in 1903. The kingdom of Siam bestowed on him the title Phya Kalyana Maitri. From the Siamese government, he received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the White Elephant, Grand Cross of the Crown of Siam, special second class Order of Chula Chom Klao and second class Order of Ratanaphorn. The French government made him an officer of the Legion of Honor. Denmark awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of the Danneborg. Considering the differences between teaching law and his work in diplomacy, Westengard could rightly boast that the latter afforded him considerably more honors, as he once wrote in a letter: I remember well that I dined one night with [Harvard University] President Eliot, when, pointing out the happiness of the law teacher's lot, he said that the practicing lawyer was a man "whose name was writ in water." No man should boast till he has safely finished his task; but, come what may, in Siam my name is writ more substantially on the land than that. == Personal affairs ==

Westengard married Rebecca Aubrey Prosser on July 16, 1898 in London, England. They had one son, Jens Aubrey Westengard (b. 1900). Shortly after he was informed that the Siamese government wished him to be their representative at the Paris Peace Conference after World War I, Westengard died in Cambridge, Mass., on September 17, 1918, after a brief illness. == See also ==