Raymond Henry Norweb was a United States diplomat with posts in various countries, including France, Bolivia, The Dominican Republic, Peru, Portugal and Cuba. In 1943 he was sent to Portugal, with the personal rank of Ambassador, to close the negotiations for the agreement between the United States and Portugal that allowed the United States to obtain a military base in the Azores, the Lajes Field, in time for the Azores to play a substantial role in the Far Eastern campaign.
Biography
Raymond Henry Norweb was born in England and moved to Elyria, Ohio with his family in 1907. He graduated from Harvard in 1916. He was a career diplomat, starting in 1917, in Paris, as second secretary to Ambassador William Graves Sharp. He was assigned to diplomatic posts in various countries, including France, Japan, the Netherlands, the Dutch East Indies, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Portugal and Bolivia. His last assignment was as ambassador to Cuba, 1945-1948. During World War II, in 1943 he was sent to Portugal, with the personal rank of Ambassador, to head the negotiations for establishing the United States air base in the Azores. Norweb had already negotiated rights to military bases in Peru and the Germans press tagged him a "famous American base stealer". The negotiations for the agreement between the United States and Portugal, conducted initially by George Kennan Chargé d’Affairs in Portugal, were long and complex. The final agreement was signed in November 28, 1944 between Norweb and Portuguese ruler Salazar. When Norweb arrived to Lisbon the US diplomatic representation was just a legation, under Norweb it became so important a place that it was made an Embassy. He retired to Cleveland in 1948 from his post as Ambassador to Cuba. Henry Norweb and his wife Emery were both noted experts on world and U.S. coins. R. Henry Norweb Sr. was a member of the American Numismatic Society, the Royal Numismatic Society, the Canadian Numismatic Association, and the New York Numismatic Club. He was a member of the American Numismatic Society, serving on that body's Council from 1960 until 1978. In the latter year Henry Norweb was appointed an honorary Life Councillor to the ANS. The Norwebs owned a specimen of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel and they have donated it to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection in 1978 to commemorate their sixtieth wedding anniversary.The Norweb specimen is one of two 1913 Liberty Head nickels that have ended up in museums. It is on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution. He was a life member of the James Smithson Society, receiving the Society's gold medal, together with his wife, in 1978. Mr. Norweb served as president of the John Huntingdon Fund for Education, and was a trustee of Kenyon College and the Western Reserve Historical Society. Their son, R. Henry Norweb Jr., carried on the family tradition and served as American Numismatic Society president from 1990 to 1994.
