Frederick A. Sterling

Frederick A.Sterling (Library of Congress)
Frederick Augustine Sterling was born in St. Louis, Missouri on August 13, 1876. He went to school in Switzerland before going on to receive his B.A. from Harvard in 1898. After attending law school at Washington University for a year, Sterling first managed a cattle ranch for eight years and then ran a wool manufacturing enterprise for two years.

Sterling entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1911. His first assignment was as Third Secretary to the U.S. Mission in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1913, Sterling served as an election observer for the Dominican Republic's Constituent Assembly, where he helped mediate an end to violence between several political factions by negotiating fair elections for the assembly and local offices. In February 1914, Sterling was assigned as Second Secretary to the U.S. Embassy in Peking (Beijing), China. The next year, he returned for a second assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia. In 1916, Sterling served as the Acting Chief of the U.S. State Department's Division of Western European Affairs. In early 1918, Sterling went to the U.S. Embassy in Paris where he would also serve as Vice Consul. After completing his tour in Paris, Sterling accepted an assignment as the U.S. Consul in Lima, Peru.

On May 21, 1921, Sterling married Dorothy Williams, with whom he would have three children: John, David, and Frederica. In 1923, Sterling became the U.S. Consul in London. In 1927, Sterling was named the U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Irish Free State (Ireland). In 1933, Sterling became the U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Bulgaria.

In 1937, the U.S. State Department assigned two separate U.S. ministers to the Baltic States – one to Lithuania and one to cover Estonia and Latvia. On August 23, 1937, Owen J.C. Norem of Montana (1902-1981) was appointed U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Lithuania while two weeks earlier on August 9, 1937 Sterling was appointed and then sworn in as the U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Estonia and Latvia. Sterling, however, did not proceed to post. Instead, he accepted a final assignment as the U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden in 1938. Four years later he retired from the Foreign Service and moved back to Washington, D.C. where he died on April 21, 1957.