Frank Polk


Frank Lyon Polk was a prominent United States lawyer and diplomat, who was also a name partner of the law firm today known as Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Early life and education

Polk was born on September 13, 1871, in New York City, son of William Mecklenburg Polk, the dean of the Cornell Medical School, and grandson of bishop and Confederate general Leonidas Polk, who was a cousin of President James K. Polk.
He graduated from Yale College in 1894, and Columbia University Law School in 1897. He was a member of the Scroll and Key Society.

Career

In 1897, Polk began his law practice in New York City. He served on a variety of City boards and commissions. He was member of the civil service commission of New York from 1907 to 1909, and in 1907 and 1910 was a member of the New York City Board of Education. On January 24, 1914, Mayor Mitchel appointed him corporation counsel, in which office he remained until his appointment on September 16, 1915, as counselor for the United States Department of State at Washington, D.C., confirmed by the Senate on December 17, 1915. On April 17, 1914, Polk was wounded by gunfire when a former city employee attempted to assassinate Mayor Mitchel.
He served in the Department of State as Counselor until 1919, Under Secretary of State in 1919 and 1920, and then as Acting Secretary of State in 1920. Polk headed the American Commission to Negotiate Peace in 1919, and after President Wilson's and Secretary Lansing's departure from Paris in 1919, he represented the United States at the Paris peace conference. He also managed the 1924 Democratic presidential convention campaign of John W. Davis, another name partner of his law firm.

Personal life

Polk was married to Elizabeth Sturgis Potter. Elizabeth was the daughter of James Potter, the Cunard Line representative in Philadelphia, and Elizabeth Potter. The Polks lived at 6 East Sixty-eighth Street in New York City, had a home in Syosset on Long Island and in Boca Grande, Florida. Together, they had five children: John, Elizabeth, Frank, James, and Alice.
His portrait was painted by Sir Oswald Birley in 1923.
Frank Lyon Polk died on February 7, 1943, in New York City.

Descendants

Polk is the grandfather of financier Lewis Polk Rutherfurd who was married to Janet Jennings Auchincloss, the half-sister of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, from 1966 until her death in 1985.