Henry Edward Catto, Jr.

Background

Henry Edward Catto, Jr. was born on December 6, 1930 in Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, United States. He was a son of Henry Edward Catto, a prominent insurance man, and Maurine Catto. He grew up in San Antonio, Texas.

Education

In 1948 Henry Edward Catto, Jr. graduated from the Texas Military Institute (now TMI Episcopal). In 1952 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College.

Career

Henry E. Calto Jr. has had a long and varied political career. He was running his family’s insurance business in the late 1950s when he considered a run for the Texas Republican Party chairmanship. He met and befriended George Bush, and like his friend built a solid political career, but not before some misfires. In 1961 he ran for office against a man twice indicted - though not convicted - for murder. Catto lost. True to his word, in 1969 he received an appointment from President Nixon as deputy United States representative to the Organization of American States. In 1971 he was named United States Ambassador to El Salvador. In 1974 he stepped up to the plate as Chief of Protocol for President Gerald Ford. From there he became the United States representative to the European Office of the United Nations until 1977.

Catto retired from public life but returned in 1981 to work as assistant secretary of public affairs to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Catto won the plum post of Ambassador to England in 1989. It was a homecoming of sorts. Catto’s grandfather was from England and Catto had several relatives there. In 1991, he was named director of the United Stales Information Agency, a position he held until 1993. He served with several nongovernmental organizations, including the Aspen Institute and the Atlantic Council of the United States. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, beginning in 1993.

In 1999 he became the chairman of the Atlantic Council of the United States, a public policy group in Washington, and in 2007, its chairman emeritus. Catto wrote a book about his experiences, Ambassador at Sea: The High and Low Adventures of a Diplomat. At the time of his death, he was vice chairman of the Aspen Institute, where he and his wife, Jessica Hobby Catto, had established the Catto Fellowship for a Sustainable Future.

Achievements

• Henry Edward Catto Jr. was best known for his service in several positions within the United States government. He held the rank of ambassador five times, served as the Pentagon’s top spokesman under Ronald Reagan and was director of the old United States Information Agency during the first Bush administration.
  
  He received an honorary doctorate of laws from Aberdeen University in Scotland and an honorary doctorate of philosophy from St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Ambassadors at Sea: the High and Low Adventures of a Diplomat

    (In 1969, Henry Catto was selling insurance in San Antonio...)

    1999

Politics

Henry Edward Catto, Jr. ran as part of the first Republican legislative ticket in Bexar County in 1960 and again in 1961, and lost both times, as was usual for Texas Republicans in those days.

Views

Henry Edward Catto, Jr. had donated to the Aspen Institute $500,000, wheere he was a vice chairman of the board, to help sustain the Catto Fellowship, a program that challenges its fellows to develop new insights about themselves, the role of leadership, and the need for effective collaborative action to ensure the well-being of the environment, a mission so important to Henry’s wife Jessica. They were major supporters of the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, providing essential funds to preserve Rock Bottom Ranch and Toklat as ACES facilities.

He was a longtime supporter of numerous arts organizations, including the Aspen Music Festival and School, the San Antonio Symphony, the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Witte Museum in San Antonio.

Membership

Henry Edward Catto, Jr. was a member of Metro Club (Washington, D.C.).

Personality

Henry Edward Catto, Jr. radiated courtliness and kindness and treated everyone he met with respect and courtesy. He relished conversation both personally and professionally and believed in the power of discourse as a path forward.

Interests

• running, tennis

Connections

On February 15, 1958 Henry Edward Catto, Jr. married Jessica Oveta Hobby. She died in 2009. They had four children: Heather, John, William, Elizabeth.

Father:

Henry Edward Catto

Mother:

Maurine Catto

Daughter:

Elizabeth Catto

Son:

William Catto

Son:

John Catto

Daughter:

Heather Catto

late spouse:

Jessica Oveta Hobby-Catto

Friend:

George Bush

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2000