Nason, Rachel Conrad, 1899-1977.

Educator and government official Rachel Conrad Nason (1899-1977) graduated from Wellesley (A.B. 1920) and the University of Pennsylvania (M.A. 1934). She taught history and English at the Chaffee School, Windsor, Conn. (1937-1942) and was dean of women at Hillyer Junior College, Hartford, Conn. (1939-1941). Her lifelong involvement with international affairs began in the 1920s when she served as executive secretary of the Young Friends Movement (Quaker) and was co-founder of the Connecticut Council of International Relations. In 1931 she received a grant from the Committee on the Cause and Cure of War to study in Europe and at the League of Nations; she published a report, Hitler and the Corridor, and lectured widely upon her return. As congressional secretary for the League of Women Voters (1944-1945), Nason helped organize Senate hearings which led to the U.S. ratification of the United Nations Charter.

An advisor to Eleanor Roosevelt while she was chair of the Human Rights Commission, Nason prepared many of the U.S. drafts for what was eventually adopted by the United Nations as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition to serving as an advisor to U.S. delegations at the U.N., Nason was an international organization affairs specialist for the Dept. of State, with responsibility for human rights, anti-discrimination, and status of women programs. In 1968 she received the Dept. of State's Distinguished Service Award; she retired in 1969.

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