Charles Burke Elbrick
| Charles Burke Elbrick | |
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Portrait of Ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick by Andrew Festing, MBE PPRP
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| 53rd United States Ambassador to Portugal | |
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In office January 13, 1959 – August 31, 1963 |
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| Preceded by | James C. H. Bonbright |
| Succeeded by | George W. Anderson, Jr. |
| 14th United States Ambassador to Yugoslavia | |
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In office March 17, 1964 – April 28, 1969 |
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| President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | George F. Kennan |
| Succeeded by | William Leonhart |
| 37th United States Ambassador to Brazil | |
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In office July 14, 1969 – May 7, 1970 |
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| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | John W. Tuthill |
| Succeeded by | William M. Rountree |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 25, 1908 Louisville, Kentucky, United States |
| Died | April 12, 1983 (aged 75) Washington D.C. |
| Profession | Career Diplomat |
Charles Burke Elbrick, (March 25, 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky – April 12, 1983 in Washington, D.C.), was a United States diplomat and career foreign service officer. During his career, he served three ambassadorships: in Portugal, Yugoslavia and Brazil, in addition to numerous minor postings.
Elbrick spoke Portuguese, Spanish, French and German, and was regarded as an expert on Iberia and Eastern Europe after World War II.
Elbrick was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Charles Elbrick and his Irish wife Lillian Burke, and raised as a Roman Catholic. Transferring after a freshman year at the University of Notre Dame, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College in 1929, narrowly missing selection for a Rhodes Scholarship. He had aimed to begin a career in publishing in New York, but the Wall Street Crash of 1929 persuaded him to work instead for the US Government. He therefore studied languages to prepare for a career with the United States Department of State.
Commissioned into the United States Foreign Service in 1931, Elbrick was initially appointed Vice Consul in Panama, and then Southampton, England. He next served as Third Secretary at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, before transferring in that rank to Warsaw, Poland in 1937. In 1939, Elbrick followed the Polish government into exile after the invasion by the German Nazi army. While leaving Warsaw in convoy, the diplomatic convoy was strafed by German planes, and Elbrick had to leap to cover in a roadside ditch. He joined the Polish government-in-exile at Angers, France. When the German blitzkrieg smashed into France in the spring of 1940, Elbrick had to flee again, this time to Spain. He spent most of World War II as an embassy official in Lisbon, and as consul in Tangier. During this time he added Portuguese to his other foreign languages, which were German, French and Spanish.
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