George Ball was born in Des Moines, Iowa on December
21 1909, and moved with his family to Evanston when he was eleven
years old. Ball earned both a bachelor's degree in 1930 and a degree
in law in 1933 from Northwestern University. After completing his
studies, he began his long career in public service when he joined
the Farm Credit Administration. Ball later held positions in the
Treasury Department, the Land Lease Administration, and with the
Strategic Bombing Survey during World War II. As a law partner of
Adlai Stevenson, Ball worked on Stevenson's 1952 and 1956 presidential
campaigns. He served under John F. Kennedy as Undersecretary of
State, and in 1961 advised against sending U.S. troops to Vietnam.
Ball resigned from State in 1966 to join the investment banking
firm of Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb. He was nominated by Lyndon B.
Johnson to the post of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Ball
left the ambassadorship in 1969 and returned to Lehman Brothers,
where he served as senior managing director until his retirement
in 1982. He died in 1994.
