Arthur J Collingsworth

Arthur J. Collingsworth
Arthur J. Collingsworth
Born	Arthur J. Collingsworth (1944-02-28)February 28, 1944 Jackson, Michigan, United States
Died	July 23, 2013(2013-07-23) (aged 69) Berlin, Germany
Cause of death	bone marrow cancer
Resting place	San Diego, California, United States
Residence	San Diego, California, United States and Berlin, Germany
Nationality	United States
Awards	Order of the White Rose from the Government of Finland, Order of the Lion from the Government of Finland

Arthur J. Collingsworth (February 28, 1944 – July 23, 2013) was a retired American United Nations official, international student exchange executive, consultant on international fund raising and real estate investor. He lived in the United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Czech Republic and Germany.

Collingsworth was born on February 28, 1944 in Jackson, Michigan. He grew up and attended public schools in Tecumseh, Michigan where he was a student leader.

At the age of fourteen he wrote a letter to President Juscelino Kubitschek of Brazil that resulted in his appointment as Brazilian Government Trade Bureau Representative to Michigan and Ohio. The media described him as the "world's youngest diplomat" and the United States Information Agency made a film about him called A Midwestern Boy Writes to the President of Brazil. In recognition of his promotional efforts President Kubitschek invited him to visit Brazil for a month in 1960.

In 1962 he entered the University of Michigan as a Regents Alumni Scholarship recipient and received a B.A. in Political Science in 1967. He was active in a number of organizations and took a year to serve on the staff of his local congressman. He also spent a summer doing research work for the Foreign Affairs Research Division of the House Republican Conference in Washington, D.C., and wrote a syndicated column entitled "Our Man in Washington" for a group of Michigan newspapers.

In the summer of 1965 he spent several months in South Vietnam as a student leader observer on a grant from an American organization. In the summer of 1966 he made his second trip around the world as chairman of a delegation of national college Republican leaders. The group met with a number of senior political and government leaders and prepared a report for selected Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee upon their return. In 1967 Collingsworth established the Niels Hansen Memorial Foundation and has served as its Chairman since then.

In the autumn of 1967 he entered the Georgetown University Graduate School. He held an Earhart Foundation Fellowship and served as a Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He received his M.A. in Government (international relations) in 1971. While a Fellow at CSIS he helped to author Trading with Communist Countries: A Reference Manual, which was published by the Center in January 1968. He work for a year on the Presidential campaign staff of Richard Nixon and sthen served on the White House Transition staff.