Dutch American Ambassadors to the Netherlands

by C. Carl Pegels

As of 2019 there have been 69 US Ambassadors to the Netherlands. Among the 69 are six with solid and verifiable Dutch American backgrounds.

The first US Ambassador to the Netherlands was John Adams. He served from 1782 until 1788. His position was very important because the Dutch government was one of the first to officially recognize the new republic of the United States, and much of the early financing for the new republic was provided by Dutch bankers.

The earliest Dutch American to serve as US Ambassador to the Netherlands was Hermanus Bleecker. He served from May 1837 until June 1842.

It would be another 46 years before another Dutch American Ambassador was appointed. He

Twenty three years later the third Dutch American Ambassador, Henry van Dyke was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson. He served from October 1913 until January 1917.

The first three Dutch Americans who served as Ambassadors to the Netherlands were all descendants of the early Dutch who came over in the seventeenth century.

The fourth Dutch American to become the US Ambassador was a descendant of the nineteenth century Dutch. His name was Gerrit J. Diekema. He was born in Holland, MI and his father was a Dutch immigrant. Diekema served from November 1929 until December 1930, the end of his life.

The fifth Ambassador, the first woman ambassador, was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009. She was Fay Hartog-Levin, an attorney and executive from Chicago. She was sworn in as US Ambassador to the Netherlands on August 19, 2009 and served until 2011.

The sixth Dutch American Ambassador was Peter Hoekstra. He was appointed on January 18, 2018. He was born in Groningen, the Netherlands in 1953, and moved with his parents to Holland, Michigan in 1957. He was thus the only Dutch-born one of the six.

Below follow brief biographical profiles of the six Dutch American US Ambassadors to the Netherlands in chronological order.

Bleecker, Harmanus [1779-1849]

Harmanus Bleecker’s served as a Representative of New York to the 12th US Congress, from March 1811 to March 1813. He was appointed Ambassador, to the Netherlands and served from May 1837 to June 1842.

Bleecker practiced law in Albany, NY for most of his life. From 1822 to 1834, he also served as a regent of the University of the State of New York. Robert B. Roosevelt

Harmanus Bleecker was born in Albany, NY on October 9, 1779. The Bleecker family dates back to the early days of New Amsterdam.

Roosevelt, Robert B. [1829-1906]

Robert Roosevelt served in the US Congress for one term. He was closely related to the two US presidents who bore his name. In fact he was one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s uncles.

Roosevelt influenced his nephew, Theodore Roosevelt, on the importance of the preservation of nature. Theodore Roosevelt became a devoted conservationist, and many of our national parks are there because of him.

Roosevelt was admitted to the bar in 1850, and practiced law in NY City. He was appointed by President Grover Cleveland to be the US Ambassador, then known as US Minister to the Netherlands. He served from 1888 to 1890.

Henry Van Dyke

Roosevelt also served in the US Congress form March 1871 to March 1873.

Van Dyke, Henry [1852-1933]

Henry van Dyke was a Dutch American author, poet, academic, clergyman and diplomat. He was born in Germantown, PA in 1852, attended Princeton University and graduated in 1873. He then attended Princeton Theological Seminary, and upon graduation was ordained as a Presbyterian minister.

In 1899, van Dyke was appointed Professor of English Literature at Princeton University. In 1913, President Wilson appointed him to Ambassador to the Netherlands and Luxembourg. He served in the position for four years.

Van Dyke was quite active as an author. He wrote at least 12 books, most of them with religious titles. His first book “The Reality of Religion” was published in 1884, and his last book, “Gratitude” was published in 1930.

Diekema, Gerrit J. [1859-1930]

Gerrit Diekema was the son of Dutch immigrants who settled in Western Michigan during the mass immigration by the Dutch in the 1840s and 1850s.

Diekema graduated from Hope College in 1881, went to Law School and graduated with a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1883. In 1885 he was elected to the Michigan State House of Representatives, and served until 1891. Four years later, in 1895, he was elected to mayor of Holland, MI and served until 1896.

In 1907, Diekema was elected to be US Representative for the Fifth Congressional District of Michigan. He served for two terms until 1910. Between 1911 and 1929, Diekema was a member of the Republican State Central Committee.

Diekema received an honorary degree from Hope College in 1913. In 1972, at the 125th anniversary of Hope College, a memorial plaque honoring Diekema was placed in Dimnent memorial Chapel of Hope College.

In August 1929, Diekema was appointed US Ambassador to the Netherlands by President Hoover. He would only hold that position until December 20, 1930, the date of his death. At his funeral service, Arthur Vandenberg, the US Senator for Michigan paid tribute to the public service by Diekema.

Hartog-Levin, Fay [1948]

President Barack Obama appointed Fay HartogLevin US Ambassador to the Netherlands on August 13, 2009. She was sworn in by Dutch Queen Beatrix on August 19, 2009. She served until 2011.

Fay Hartog-Levin was born in the United States in 1948, the same year her Dutch parents immigrated to the United States. Her parents were of Jewish background and were in serious danger of being arrested and deported to a concentration camp during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. They

Fay Hartog-Levin were fortunately able to escape from occupied Western Europe in 1942, and settled in Suriname, then a Dutch colony in South America.

Her father joined the Dutch army while in Suriname and served in it during the remainder of the war. After the war, in 1945, the family repatriated to the Netherlands, and in 1948 decided to immigrate to the United States.

Prior to her appointment as ambassador, HartogLevin had been an attorney for many years. She had practiced law but became involved in management and consulting activities. She was a graduate of Northwestern University. Following graduation she earned her law degree from Loyola University in Chicago.

Hoekstra, Peter [1953]

Peter Hoekstra was the only member of the US House of Representatives and the US Ambassadors to the Netherlands who was born in Groningen, the Netherlands. He was three years old when his

Hoekstra became the sixth Dutch American Ambassador to the Netherlands when he was appointed to that post on January 18, 2018. Prior to that post he served in the US House of Representatives for 14 years, from 1993 until 2007, representing a district in Western Michigan.

While in Congress he served as the Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He had also served on two other Committees before. During his tenure he was awarded three different awards for his performance as a Congressional Representative. Also Habitat for Humanity named him

Public Official of the Year in the year 2000.

References

http://bioguide.congress.gov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki US Ambassadors: http://thehague.usembassy.gov

Dr. C. Carl Pegels is a frequent contributor to dis magazine and has written extensively on DutchAmericans of note in areas of politics, entertainment, science, and religion. He is 2009 recipient of the New Netherland Institute Alice P. Kenny Memorial Award.