Vance, Sheldon Baird, 1917-

Sheldon Baird Vance was born in Crookston, Minnesota, on January 18, 1917, the son of Erskine Ward and Helen (Baird) Vance. He graduated from Austin High School, Austin, Minn., in 1935. He earned a bachelor's degree from Carleton College, Northfield, Minn., in 1939, and a law degree from Harvard University in 1942. He joined the Ropes, Gray, Best, Coolidge & Rugg law firm, Boston, in 1942.

Vance joined the Foreign Service in 1942, and served as an economic analyst at the American embassy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1942-1946); U.S. vice consul in Nice, France and in Monaco (1946-1949); U.S. consul at the U.S. embassy in Martinique, West Indies (1949-1951); Swiss Desk Officer (1951-1952); Belgium-Luxembourg desk officer with the State Department in Washington, D.C. (1952-1954); first secretary at the American embassy in Brussels, Belgium (1954-1958); chief of personnel placement in the Bureau of Africa, Middle East, and South Asia (1958-1960); student Senior Seminar in Foreign Relations (1960-1961); director of the Office of Central African Affairs (1961-1962); deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in Ethiopia (1962-1966); and senior foreign service inspector (1966-1967). He served as American ambassador to Chad (1967-1969) and to Zaire (1969-1974). He was promoted to the rank of career minister in 1971. Vance served as senior adviser to the secretary of state, coordinator for international narcotics matters, and executive director of the President's Cabinet Committee on International Narcotics Control (1974-1977). After retiring from the Foreign Service in 1977, he practiced international law in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Vance, Joyce, Carbaugh and Fields (1977-1989).

Vance married Jean Chambers on December 28, 1939. They had two children: Robert Clarke and Stephen Baird Vance. In later years they made their home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Sheldon Vance died at Bethesda, Maryland, on November 12, 1995.