Patricia van Delden

Patricia Gillingham van Delden (April 5, 1908[1] – died after 1970) was an American diplomat. During World War II, she was active in the Dutch resistance to the Nazis. After the war, she served in various postings in Japan, Germany, and the Netherlands for the United States Department of State. She received the Federal Woman's Award in 1964. Cold War scholar Giles Scott-Smith described her as "one of the most intriguing officials ever to work in the U. S. Embassy in The Hague."[2]

Patricia van Delden
A middle-aged white woman with dark hair in a bouffant set, wearing a dark dress or jacket with a white collar
Patricia van Delden, from a 1964 publication of the United States federal government
Born
Patricia Louise Gillingham

April 5, 1908
Los Angeles, California
Other namesSonneveer (code name)
Occupation(s)American diplomat, cultural attaché
Known forWork in the Dutch Resistance during World War II
Notable workOrder of Orange-Nassau; Federal Woman's Award (1964)

Early life and education

Patricia Louise (or Eloise) Gillingham was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of William Bartel Gillingham, a mining engineer, and Camillia Gillingham. Her parents divorced, and her mother's efforts to secure child support to raise Patricia made headlines.[3]

Gillingham graduated from Belmont High School and the University of Southern California, and studied bacteriology in Munich, Zurich, and Vienna. She was a fluent German and Dutch speaker.[4][5]

Career

After her second husband was arrested by the Nazis in 1942, van Delden continued their work with the Dutch resistance, transmitting messages, forging documents,[6] and smuggling maps under the code name "Sonneveer".[7][8][9] For her efforts during World War II, she was awarded the Order of Orange-Nassau.[4][10] Immediately after the war, she toured in the United States, telling her story to raise funds for refugee relief in Holland.[11][12]

She joined the U. S. State Department in 1948, and led the Amerika Haus program in Germany.[13] In 1952, she was transferred to Japan to supervise 23 cultural centers.[14] There, she created the Nagano Seminar, an academic gathering of Japanese scholars studying American literature.[15] In 1957 she facilitated Helen Keller's tour in Scandinavia.[16] In 1959 she was cultural affairs officer at the American embassy in Copenhagen, and in 1960 she returned to The Hague.[17] In 1964, van Delden was Deputy Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Information Agency (USIA) in Bonn, when she won the Federal Woman's Award.[18]

In 1966, van Delden was offered as an example of an "overpaid officer" in a Congressional hearing on overseas operations, because her salary as deputy was greater than that of her immediate superior.[19] She was one of the highest-paid women in the USIA that year.[20] "Pat often raised hackles among male officers, particularly her superiors, because she was smarter than most of them," recalled a colleague, G. Lewis Schmidt, in 1988, "and she was an absolute fountain of extremely good ideas."[15]

Personal life

Patricia Gillingham married Robert M. Ziegler in 1929; they later divorced.[21][22] She married her second husband, Dutch electrical engineer and patent attorney Louis Otto van Delden, in 1939.[23][24] He was captured by the Nazis in 1942, and he died in a concentration camp in 1945. She married a third time, to Bart van der Laan, and retired in 1971 to the south of France.[2][4]

References
  1. United States Department of State (1961). The Biographic Register. Office of Special Services, Division of Publishing Services. p. 724.
  2. Scott-Smith, Giles (2008). Networks of Empire: The US State Department's Foreign Leader Program in the Netherlands, France, and Britain 1950-1970. Peter Lang. pp. 242–249, 286, quote on 242. ISBN 978-90-5201-256-8.
  3. "Millionaire Charged with Failing to Aid Daughter". Oakland Tribune. 1917-08-02. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Women Spies Part I: Patricia Van Denden", The Fontaine Archive (March 16, 2021).
  5. Barrows, Nat A. (1945-10-16). "Angeleno Heroine in Spy Thriller (continued)". The Los Angeles Times. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. McCarthy, Julia (1945-10-24). "Patricia Van Delden a Patriotic Forger". Daily News. p. 55. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Barrows, Nat A. (1945-10-16). "Angeleno Heroine in Spy Thriller". The Los Angeles Times. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Netherlands Heroine Back from Europe". The Los Angeles Times. 1945-10-20. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Barrows, Nat A. (1945-10-17). "Underground Heroine Tells How Gestapo Stalked Her". The Los Angeles Times. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Kanselarij der Nederlandse Orden: Index gedecoreerden, Achternaam: Gillingham van delden". Nationaal Archief (in Dutch). Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  11. McCullough, Trudi (1945-11-02). "American Woman Led Underground Group in Holland". The Daily Times. p. 16. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Woman Head of Dutch Underground to Speak Here in Clothing Drive". The Boston Globe. 1946-05-17. p. 13. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Department of State Publication: Department and Foreign Service series. Department of State. 1948. p. 645.
  14. Francis, Lorania K. (1952-02-08). "L. A. Woman Who Defied Nazis Will Visit Here". The Los Angeles Times. p. 20. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. Hansen, Allen (February 8, 1988). "Interview with G. Lewis Schmidt", The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project.
  16. "Newspaper article from 'Ekstrabladet' about Helen Keller's visit to Norway, with photograph of Miss Keller, Polly Thomson, and Patricia van Delden". American Foundation for the Blind. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  17. "Shift for a Diplomat". The Kansas City Times. 1959-11-20. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "6 Career Women Chosen for Top Award". The Tampa Tribune. 1964-02-03. p. 20. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. United States Congress, House of Representatives (1966). Hearings. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 455–456.
  20. "High USIA Job Goes to Woman". The Spokesman-Review. 1966-09-08. p. 40. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. "Marriage listings". The Los Angeles Times. 1929-07-21. p. 14. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. "Brother Here Hails Heroine". The Los Angeles Times. 1945-10-16. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. Gross, Ben (1945-12-29). "Listening In". Daily News. p. 201. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. Eads, Jane (1952-02-13). "Engineer's Wife Promotes Democracy Understanding". The Courier-News. p. 15. Retrieved 2021-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
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