The Honorable John L. Loeb, Jr.
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December 2020 - The Honorable John L. Loeb, Jr. Gives $4 Million Gift for the National Museum of American Diplomacy. Learn More
Biography
John L. Loeb, Jr. was a senior partner at Loeb, Rhoades & Co. from 1956 to 1979. He was the US ambassador to Denmark from 1981 to 1983 and a delegate to the 38th Session of the UN General Assembly.
He was a special advisor to Governor Nelson Rockefeller on environmental and economic affairs from 1967 to 1970 and chairman of the Governor’s New York State Council of Environmental Advisors from 1970 to 1975. From 1969 to 1971, he served as chairman of the Holly Sugar board and served as a director of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Rio Grande Industries.
Ambassador Loeb is the founder and chairman of the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom (GWIRF). He is the chairman of the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States and a trustee of the American Scandinavian Foundation. He served as a trustee of the Langeloth Foundation from 1978 to 2010, and he continues to serve as vice-chairman of the Council of American Ambassadors. He was a trustee of the Museum of the City of New York for twenty-eight years, from 1966 to 1994.
Ambassador Loeb received the Grand Cross of the Order of Dannebrog (comparable to a knighthood) from Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 1983 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) bestowed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 for his work with the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States. His other awards and recognitions include an honorary doctorate of laws from Georgetown University Law School and the Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award.
Ambassador Loeb is a member of the Society of Colonial Wars and the Sons of the American Revolution. He also owns the largest private collection of Danish art in the world outside of Denmark, as well as Russian Riverbend Vineyards Ltd., which founded Sonoma-Loeb wines. He is a member of White’s in London, Lyford Cay in the Bahamas, the Knickerbocker Club in New York, and the Century Country Club in Purchase, New York.
Earning his bachelor of arts degree (cum laude) in 1952 from Harvard College, where he was an officer of the Harvard Lampoon. Ambassador Loeb also received a master's of business administration from Harvard Business School in 1954. From 1954 to 1956, he was a first lieutenant in the US Air Force in Long Beach, California.
Ambassador Loeb is married to Sharon (Handler). She graduated from Tufts University (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and Columbia University Law School as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Sharon practiced law with Coudert Brothers in New York and Paris, France, before moving to Brussels, Belgium, to work for the Europe Economic Community. She then moved to Milan, Italy, where she lived for 11 years. She is fluent in French, Italian, and Spanish. Sharon followed her family in philanthropy, establishing an endowment in her parents’ name at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where her grandfather was a founder.
Ambassador Loeb was previously married to Nina Sundby. Together they had one daughter, Alexandra Loeb Driscoll, and two grandchildren—Aidan Driscoll, an MIT graduate, and Allegra Driscoll, a Berklee College of Music student. He was also previously married to Meta Harrsen. Together they had one son, Nicholas, and two grandchildren—Penelope Lehman Loeb and Jackson Ciro Loeb.