George Pratt Shultz American statesman Date of Birth: 13.12.1920 Country: USA

Biography of George Pratt Shultz

George Pratt Shultz was an American statesman who held various prominent positions in the United States government. He was born in New York and graduated from Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut in 1938. He then went on to study at Princeton University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1942.

During World War II, Shultz served in the United States Marine Corps and reached the rank of captain. After his military service, he pursued further education and obtained a PhD in industrial economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949. It was during his time in Hawaii that he met his future wife, Helena Maria "Obie" O'Brien.

Shultz began his academic career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, teaching at the economics department and the Sloan School of Management from 1948 to 1957. He briefly worked as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Eisenhower in 1955. In 1957, he moved to the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, where he eventually became the dean in 1962.

In 1969, Shultz entered the political arena, serving as the Secretary of Labor in President Richard Nixon's administration until 1970. He then became the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Nixon. From May 1972 to May 1974, he held the position of Secretary of the Treasury, during which time the gold standard was abandoned and the Bretton Woods system was dismantled.

After leaving the government in 1974, Shultz joined the multinational engineering corporation Bechtel as its chairman and director. However, his public service was not yet over. On July 16, 1982, he was appointed as the Secretary of State by President Ronald Reagan. Shultz was known for his moderate stance in foreign policy, although he strongly supported the U.S. intervention in Nicaragua.

During the First Intifada and the Arab-Israeli conflict, Shultz proposed an international agreement for autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He left the government on January 20, 1989, but he continues to be an influential figure within the Republican Party.

Shultz surprised many when he became one of the first prominent Republicans to advocate for the legalization of drugs. In 1998, he signed a letter published in the New York Times, stating that the global war on drugs was causing more harm than the drugs themselves.

In August 2003, Shultz was named co-chair (alongside Warren Buffett) of the Council on California's Economic Recovery, an advisory group for California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger.

On September 25, 2007, Shultz, along with several other former U.S. Secretaries of State, signed a letter urging the U.S. Congress not to pass Resolution 106 on the Armenian Genocide.