Attorney General: Nicholas D. Katzenbach
Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 17, 1922. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1939 and served in the U.S. Army Air Forces from 1941 to 1945. He received his bachelor’s degree cum laude from Princeton University in 1945, and, in 1947, his Bachelor of Laws degree from Yale University Law School. From 1947 to 1949, he was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. Katzenbach was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1950 and the Connecticut bar in 1955. He was an associate in the law firm of Katzenbach, Gildea & Rudner in 1950. From 1950 to 1953, he served as an attorney-advisor in the Office of General Counsel to the Secretary of the Air Force. Katzenbach was associate professor of law at Yale University from 1952 to 1956, and professor of law at the University of Chicago from 1956 to 1960. He served in the Department of Justice as Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel from 1961 to 1962 and as Deputy Attorney General from 1962 to 1965.
President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Katzenbach as Attorney General of the United States on February 11, 1965, and he held that office until October 2, 1966. He then served as Under Secretary of State from 1966 to 1969 and later held several leadership positions at International Business Machines Corporation. Katzenbach died in Skillman, New Jersey, on May 8, 2012.
Born in Paris, France, in 1920, Alan Wood-Thomas obtained a degree in philosophy from the University of Paris. After military service during World War II, he painted in New York and then in Clinton, Connecticut. Wood-Thomas painted Attorney General Katzenbach in 1968. It was met with some criticism, as it was considered avant-garde and not in keeping with the traditional portraits of Cabinet members. However, Katzenbach was pleased with the work, and it remains his official portrait. Wood-Thomas died in 1976.