Funeral services were held here yesterday for Harold Linder, a prominent investment banker and diplomat, former U.S. Ambassador to Canada, and a benefactor of many Jewish philanthropies who died Monday at the age of 80.
Linder was president and chairman of the U.S. Export-Import Bank from 1961-1968 when he was appointed Ambassador to Ottawa by President Johnson. Prior to that he had served in the U.S. State Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and later Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs. He was also a member of the Board of National Estimates and of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Born in Brooklyn and educated at Columbia University, Linder worked with the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees in London until World War II when he joined the U.S. Navy, attaining the rank of Commander. After the war he was a volunteer representative in London of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). In addition to the JDC, he was active over many years on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, the Jewish Guild for the Blind and the American Jewish Committee.
In the course of his business career, Linder was a partner of Carl M. Loeb, Rhoades & Co., investment bankers, and was president of the General American Investment Co. He was also chairman of the board of trustees of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the finance committee of the Smithsonian Institution and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.