Wesley Frost Papers

Wesley Frost was born in Oberlin, Ohio on June 17, 1884. His father was William Goodell Frost (1854-1938; A.B. Oberlin 1876, B.D., M.A. Oberlin 1879), Professor of Greek at Oberlin College (1879-92) and President of Berea College in Berea, Kentucky (1892-1920). His mother, Louise Raney Frost (1856-1890, enr. Oberlin 1875-77) died in 1890; the following year, Professor Frost married Eleanor Marsh (1863- 1950; A.B. Oberlin 1891).He had two brothers: Stanley (1881-1942) and Norman (1886-1962) and two half-siblings from his father's marriage to Eleanor Marsh: Edith Elizabeth (1894-1959) and Cleveland Cady (1896-1918).

Wesley Frost entered Oberlin College in the fall of 1904 after completing his freshman year at Berea College. At Oberlin,Frost was editor-in-chief of the Oberlin Review and of his class yearbook, Hi-O-Hi. He graduated in 1907 with honors in debate and oratory, receiving the M.A. in Economics from George Washington University in 1910. In 1944, he received the honorary LL.D. from the University of Paraguay.

Frost's government career began in Washington, D.C. He served from 1907 to 1908 as literary secretary to Ohio State Senator Theodore E. Burton (1852-1929; A.B. Oberlin 1872); clerk at the Department of Commerce (1908-09); and Economic Statistician for the Department of State (1909-12). His first consular post came in 1912, when he was named U.S. Consul at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. After two years, he was appointed U.S. Consul to Queenstown, Ireland, near Cork. During his service there (1914-17), he coordinated relief operations for the survivors of the S. S. Lusitania, the British steamship torpedoed by a German submarine on May 7, 1915. Frost interviewed the survivors and included their stories in his official report to the United States government, which was published in 1918 as German Submarine Warfare.

In 1917, Frost was recalled from his post in Ireland after the British Admiralty at Queenstown complained of his handling of his investigations of German submarine movements. He returned to America and remained there four years. He lectured widely on the Lusitania disaster for the Under Committee on Public Information and was admitted to the bar in Lexington, Kentucky after completing private study. He served as Assistant Foreign Trade Adviser (1918-19) and Foreign Trade Adviser (1919-21) at the Department of State in Washington D.C. and taught consular practice for three semesters at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (1919-21).

From 1921 to 1944, Frost held several diplomatic posts overseas. As U.S. Consul (1921-24) and U.S. Consul General (1924-28) in Marseilles, France, he developed trade reporting and immigration procedures. From 1928 to 1935, he was U.S. Consul General at Montreal, Canada, where he lectured frequently in French and English on economic and literary subjects. He served as Charge d'Affaires and Counselor of the American Embassy at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1935-36), where he helped to bring about the ratification of the Hull trade agreement, a key economic agreement between the United States and Paraguay. From 1936 to 1940, he served as Charge d'Affaires and Counselor at Santiago, Chile(1936-40). There, he negotiated and signed the Gutierres-Frost "Modus Vivendi" pact, which regulated U.S. trade with Chile. In 1941, he was named U.S. Minister at Asuncion, Paraguay, and in 1942, he became U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay. As Ambassador, he secured Paraguayan collaboration with the Allies in the Second World War. He served in Paraguay until his retirement at age 60 as Senior Career Ambassador on December 1, 1944.

During his twenty-four years in retirement, Frost taught International Relations and American and Latin American history at Denver University (1944-45), the New York State Teachers College at Oswego (1945-47), the American Institute for Foreign Trade at Thunderbird Field, Arizona (1947-51), and Hamilton College in Clinton, New York (1951-52). In 1950, he and Mrs. Frost moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where he lectured frequently and authored numerous articles on Latin America for the Encyclopedia Britannica as well as for Nation's Business, This Week, and National Geographic Magazine. In 1954, the Frosts settled permanently in Winter Park, Florida. Wesley Frost died on January 9, 1968 at age 83.