Sumner Gerard

Sumner Gerard Jr. (July 15, 1916 – February 24, 2005) was an American businessman, politician, and diplomat. Born in New York to a prominent family, Gerard attended Groton School and Trinity College, Cambridge. After serving in the army, navy, and Marine Corps during World War II, he moved to Montana and became involved in business, including mining and ranching, and politics. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was a member of both the Montana House of Representatives and the Montana Senate, serving as Republican minority leader in both. In 1974, President Richard Nixon appointed him United States Ambassador to Jamaica, a position he held through the administration of President Gerald Ford, leaving in 1977. He then moved to Florida, serving as an adjunct professor of marine archaeology at the University of Miami and sponsoring and participating in underwater archaeology expeditions. He died in 2005 in Vero Beach, Florida, aged 88. Early life and education Gerard was born in Melville, New York, a hamlet in the Long Island town of Huntington. Born to Sumner Gerard and Helen Coster, he had two brothers. His paternal ancestors, the Gerards, were French Huguenots who emigrated to New York in 1776 after several generations in Scotland. One of his ancestors from the maternal side of the Gerard family was Increase Sumner, Governor of Massachusetts and associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. James W. Gerard, the United States Ambassador to Germany during World War I, was his uncle. The family became prominent in business, law, and politics. Gerard Avenue in The Bronx is named for them. The Gerard family were members of the Episcopal Church.