Levy, Walter James, 1911-1997

LC control no.	n 82017217
Descriptive conventions	rda
Personal name heading	Levy, Walter James, 1911-1997 *Browse this term in* LC Authorities or the LC Catalog
Biography/History note	Walter James Levy (b. Hamburg, Germany, March 21, 1911-d. December 1997, New York City), oil expert and consultant, was chief of the petroleum branch of the Economic Cooperation Administration, an agency of the Marshall Plan, in 1948 and 1949. During his career, he served as an advisor to the Truman, Kennedy and Nixon administrations. He also held positions with the Office of Strategic Services and the U.S. State Department. He was the founder of W. J. Levy Consulting Corporation in New York City.
Located	Washington (D.C.)
Birth date	1911-03-21
Death date	1997-12
Place of birth	Hamburg (Germany)
Place of death	New York (N.Y.)
Field of activity	Petroleum industry and trade
Affiliation	United States. Department of State. Office of Intelligence Research United States. Office of Strategic Services United States. Economic Cooperation Administration
Found in	His The past, present, and likely future price structure ... 1951. Biog. index, v. 2 (Levy, Walter James; b. 1911: info. from memo) Telegram from Henry Grady to Dean Acheson, Truman Library, August 17, 1951: (relates to oil consultant Walter J. Levy) Who's Who in America, 1954-1955: (Walter James Levy; oil consultant; b. March 21, 1911, Hamburg, Germany; chief petroleum secretary, O.S.S., Washington, 1942-1945; assistant, office of intelligence research, Department of State, 1945-1948) New York Times via Google search, Sept. 30, 2015: obituary, December 15, 1997 (Walter James Levy, a New York-based oil consultant who was considered the dean of United States oil economists, died Wednesday at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He was 86; In World War II, Mr. Levy headed the petroleum section of the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. After the war, he guided the petroleum sector of the Marshall Plan. In 1948 he became chief of the petroleum, oil and lubricant division of the Economic Cooperation Administration, which administered the plan to mend Europe's shattered economies and provide the political stability for democratic institutions to thrive. He filled that job until 1949 and continued to advise the E.C.A. until it ended its mission two years later; Walter Levy was born in Altona, Germany, now a part of Hamburg. He studied at the Universities of Berlin, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Munich and Kiel, where he received a Doctor of Laws degree; migrated to England in 1933, found work at the Petroleum Press Bureau) <http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/15/business/walter-james-levy-86-oil-consultant-dies.html> Rocky Mountain Online Archive WWW site via Google search, Sept. 30, 2015: Inventory of the Walter J. Levy Papers, 1911-1988: University of Wyoming. American Heritage Center (Levy was born in Hamburg, German; received doctorate from Kiel University in 1933, and left for England shortly after to work for the Petroleum Press Service; emigrated to New York in 1941 and worked briefly for Fortune magazine. In 1942 he joined the U.S. Office of Strategic Services as a pretroleum advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff; in 1948 and 1949, chief of the petroleum branch of the Economic Cooperation Administration, an agency of the Marshall Plan. in 1949, Levy established his own oil consulting firm, W. J. Levy Consulting Corporation, in New York City; advisor to the Truman, Kennedy and Nixon administrations; in 1963, served as advisor to Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Wilson Wyatt, who had been appointed by President Kennedy to negotiate an agreement between the government of Indonesia and oil companies in the United States) <http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=wyu-ah08428.xml#idp45056> Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History WWW site, Sept. 30, 2015: Guide to the Herta Grove Family Collection circa 1930s-2003 (personal papers and clippings related to Herta Grove née Levi, her parents Moses and Bertha (Betty) Levi, and her brother Walter J. Levy, a noted oil consultant for the U.S. government) <http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=476151>