George Walbridge Perkins Jr.


George Walbridge Perkins II was an American diplomat who served as Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs from 1949 to 1953 and as United States Permanent Representative to NATO from 1955 to 1957.

Life and career

He was born on May 2, 1895 to George Walbridge Perkins. He graduated from Princeton in 1917, where he worked to abolish eating clubs. In 1921 he married Linn Merck, daughter of George W. Merck. In 1925 his son George Walbridge Perkins III was born. He worked at Merck & Co., Inc. from 1927 to 1948. In 1950, he successfully persuaded Congress to assist Josip Broz Tito in his defiance of the Stalin regime. Perkins died of a heart attack in Manhattan on January 11, 1960.