Quick Facts
Biography
Stanley Woodward, Sr. (March 12, 1899 – August 17, 1992) was the White House Chief of Protocol under Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ambassador to Canada under Harry S. Truman. He was a favorite social companion of FDR. Notable for his cautiousness in protecting Axis diplomats at the onset of World War II, he was also largely responsible for the introduction of "black tie attire" as acceptable formalwear. In his youth, he had an inclination for the Bishop's robe.
He was a Foreign Service officer in Europe and Haiti from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s before returning to Philadelphia as commissioner of Fairmount Park. He returned to the Foreign Service in 1937, serving first as Assistant Chief of Protocol and then as Chief of Protocol at the State Department until his appointment as Ambassador in 1950.
He served as the United States Ambassador to Canada (1950–1953), graduated from Yale University in 1922 and was a 1922 initiate into the Skull and Bones Society.