LINOWITZ, SOL MYRON

LINOWITZ, SOL MYRON (1913–2005), U.S. ambassador, lawyer, and business executive. Linowitz, who was born in Trenton, New Jersey, graduated from Cornell University Law School in 1938. He had a private law practice in New York and served as assistant general counsel to the Office of Price Administration (1942). From 1944 to 1946 he served in the U.S. Navy. After the war, Linowitz resumed his legal practice and began an association with Xerox Corporation. Linowitz eventually was appointed board chairman and head of Xerox International, Inc. Throughout his association with Xerox, he consistently tried to establish the image of the company as one dedicated to public service as well as profits. He served as chairman of the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Organizations, was a member of the Business Advisory Committee to the federal poverty program, and co-founded (with David Rockefeller) the International Executive Service Corps (IESC), a volunteer program that sends American executives to provide managerial and technical expertise to developing countries. Linowitz helped to establish Rochester's anti-poverty agency after the 1964 riots by blacks there. President Johnson appointed Linowitz the U.S. representative to the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Committee of the Alliance for Progress (1966–69). Linowitz also served as a trustee of the American Jewish Committee. In 1977 he helped negotiate the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama. Following the 1978 Camp David accords, he served as President Jimmy Carter's ambassador-at-large for Middle East peace negotiations (1979–81). In 1998, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. During his career, Linowitz also served as a director of Time Inc., Pan Am, and the Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New York; and was a partner and senior counsel with the international law firm of Coudert Brothers. Linowitz wrote The Making of a Public Man, A Memoir (1985) and The Betrayed Profession: Lawyering in the 20th Century (1994). (Joachim O. Ronall / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)