Background
Cordier was born on a farm near Canton, Ohio and attended high school in Hartville, Ohio where he became quarterback of the football team and valedictorian of his graduating class.
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Andrew Wellington Cordier
Edit Profilepolitical scientist university professor
Education
He graduated in 1922 from Manchester University and went on to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in Medieval History at the University of Chicago in 1927. He studied at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Switzerland in 1930–1931 where he made surveys of the situations in the Sudetenland, Danzig, and the Chaco War.
Career
He returned to Manchester University to teach in the Department of History and Political Science and at Indiana University extension. He became an international security advisor at the United States. State Department in 1944 and was part of the United States. delegation to the San Francisco Conference. The State Department sent him to London in 1945 to help organize the
From 1946 to 1961, Cordier served as Undersecretary in Charge of General Assembly and Related Affairs and took on assignments as a special representative of the Secretary General in the Korean War and the Suez Canal and Congo crises.
Cordier was dubbed a "demon parliamentarian" for his ability to cite the specific rules governing matters of procedure on the spot.
Cordier is noted for convincing Dean Rusk and Ambassador Yakov Malik to meet in the basement of his Great Neck, New York home to discuss how to lessen United States.–Soviet tensions. Both Belgian and United Nations documents show Cordier as doing this purposefully.
In 1962, Cordier resigned from his post after the Soviets criticized him for usurping too much of the Secretary General"s responsibilities. After leaving the United Nations, Cordier joined University as the Dean of the School of International Affairs (SIA).
When Grayson L. Kirk resigned in 1968, Cordier assumed the presidency on an interim basis while remaining Dean of SIA. The trustees were sufficiently pleased with his work that they gave him the permanent title in 1969.
Cordier accepted on the condition that the search for a new president continue. He was president until 1970, when he was succeeded by William J. McGill. Cordier continued as Dean of SIA after leaving the president"s office.
As president he enjoyed moderate success in quelling student unrest by maintaining an open-door policy, attending student rallies to listen to the protesters" concerns, and speaking out against United States. involvement in Vietnam.
Foreign these efforts the university"s main undergraduate division, College, awarded him its highest honor, the Alexander Hamilton Medal, in 1970. Cordier, aged 74, died of cirrhosis of the liver at the Manhasset Medical Center on Long Island.
