William D. Pawley
| William D. Pawley | |
|---|---|
 |
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| United States Ambassador to Peru | |
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In office July 20, 1945 – April 27, 1946 |
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| United States Ambassador to Brazil | |
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In office June 13, 1946 – March 28, 1948 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 7, 1896 Florence, South Carolina |
| Died | January 7, 1977 (aged 80) Miami Beach, Florida |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Annie Hahr Dobbs (divorced), Edna Pawley |
| Profession | Entrepreneur |
William Douglas Pawley (September 7, 1896—January 7, 1977) was a U.S. ambassador, a noted businessman and associated with the Flying Tigers American Volunteer Group (AVG) during World War II.
William Douglas Pawley was born in Florence, South Carolina on September 7, 1896. His father was a wealthy businessman based in Cuba, and young Pawley attended private schools in both Havana and Santiago. He later returned to the United States, where he studied at the Gordon Military Academy in Georgia. On July 25, 1919, Pawley married Annie Hahr Dobbs of Marietta, Georgia. In 1925, the couple moved to Miami and then to Havana, Cuba, in 1928. They returned with their three children to Miami, where their youngest child was born. The Pawleys then moved to Shanghai, China, with the baby, leaving their other children in Miami Beach with family. Mrs. Pawley lived in China until 1938 with periodic trips back to Miami. They were divorced in 1941.
In 1927, Pawley began a connection with Curtiss-Wright that would make him an extremely wealthy man. In 1928, he returned to Cuba to become president of Nacional Cubana de Aviación Curtiss, which was sold to Pan American Airlines in 1932. He then became president of Intercontinent Corporation in New York, evidently founded by Clement Keys, the former president of Curtiss. In 1933 he moved to China, where he became president of China National Aviation Corporation an airline running between Hong Kong and Shanghai. Pawley finally sold out to Pan Am again. He later assembled aircraft in partnership with the Chinese Nationalist government under the corporate name of Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Hangzhou, Wuhan, and finally Loiwing on the China-Burma border. (CAMCO was owned in partnership with the Chinese government, with the Pawley family interest represented by Intercontinent, which now served as a Pawley family holding company.)
In 1940, Hindustan Aircraft Limited was set up in India with Pawley providing the initial organization.
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