Joseph Grew - Life

Life

Grew was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in May 1880, and starting in his early years, he was groomed for public service. At the age of 12 he was sent to the Groton School, a boys' preparatory school whose purpose was to "cultivate manly Christian character". Grew was there just two grades ahead of Franklin D. Roosevelt. During his youth, Grew enjoyed the outdoors, sailing, camping, and hunting during his summers away from school. After graduating from Groton, one of only four men in his class to graduate, Grew attended Harvard University and then graduating in 1902. Following graduation, Grew made a tour of the Far East, and nearly died after being stricken with malaria. While recovering in India, he became friends with an American consul there. This inspired him to abandon his plan of following in his father's career as a banker, and he decided to go into diplomatic service

Grew's first job in diplomacy (in 1904) was as a clerk at the American consulate in Cairo, Egypt. Grew was then promoted to vice-consul in Egypt.

Grew married Alice Perry, a granddaughter of famed American naval hero Oliver Hazard Perry. She became Joe Grew's life partner and helper as promotions took him to work in Mexico, Russia, and Germany. As an aide to the American ambassador in Berlin from 1912 to 1917, Grew stayed in Germany until the United States entered World War I in April 1917 and hence broke diplomatic relations with Germany. Grew later found himself in a very similar situation when the United States went to war with the Japanese Empire in 1941.

Grew's book Sport and Travel in the Far East was a favorite one of Roosevelt's. The introduction to the 1910 Houghton Mifflin printing of the book features the following introduction written by Roosevelt:

"My dear Grew,- I was greatly interested in your book "Sport and Travel in the Far East" and I think it is a fine thing to have a member of our diplomatic service able both to do what you have done, and to write about it as well and as interestingly as you have written.... Your description, both of the actual hunting and the people and surroundings, is really excellent;..."

Alice Perry Grew was the daughter of premier American impressionist painter Lilla Cabot Perry, daughter of Dr. Samuel Cabot (of the New England Cabots) and her husband, noted American scholar Thomas Sergeant Perry.

After the Armistice was signed with Germany in November 1918, Grew worked at the United States Department of State in Washington, D.C. In 1922, he and Richard Child acted as the American observers at the Conference of Lausanne. In 1927, Grew was appointed as the American ambassador to Turkey. He served in Constantinople for five years until he was offered the opportunity to return to the Far East.

Grew's daughter, Lilla Cabot Grew, married Jay Pierrepont Moffat, the American Ambassador to Canada, in 1927.