John Fife Symington Jr. (August 27, 1910 – December 9, 2007) was an American diplomat who served as United Statesambassador to Trinidad and Tobago and an airline pioneer.
Early life
Symington was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 27, 1910, to Arabella (Hambleton) and John Fife Symington. His uncle, John Hambleton, who was a fighter pilot in World War I and a founder of Pan American World Airways, got him interested in flying.[1]
During the Great Depression, he borrowed and traveled on Pan American to Miami, San Juan, Trinidad, and South America. After his travels, he got a pilot license and emerged unhurt from three plane crashes. He got a job with the airline in 1934 and was assigned to Rio de Janeiro. When he returned from Brazil, he was given the job of traffic manager when Pan Am opened a terminal on Colgate Creek near Dundalk in 1937.[2]
In 1969, after Nixon was elected President, he named Symington ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago. Symington held the post until 1971. During his time as ambassador he had to deal with a political crisis when the military attempted a coup against prime minister Eric Williams.[5]
Symington was unhappy with his posting, and began negotiating with the Nixon administration for an ambassadorship in Europe. Symington and Nixon's attorney Herbert W. Kalmbach worked out a deal in which Symington would provide a $100,000 campaign donation to Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign in exchange for a post in either Spain or Portugal.[6] However, the deal was exposed during the Watergate scandal and Kalmbach was sentenced to prison for his part in the arrangement.[7]
Personal life
In 1939 he married Martha Howard Frick, granddaughter of steel magnate Henry Clay Frick; they had three daughters and one son:[1]
They later divorced in 1988, and Frick died in 1996.[8] He also had a twenty-year relationship with Natalie Brengle until his death. The two never married.
Symington died on December 9, 2007, at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Baltimore, Maryland, due to complications of old age. He was survived by all his children.[1]
