Walter S. Gifford
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His Excellency Walter Sherman Gifford |
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Gifford in 1925
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| United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom | |
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In office December 12, 1950 – January 23, 1953 |
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| Monarch |
George VI Elizabeth II |
| President | Harry S. Truman |
| Prime Minister |
Clement Attlee Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | Lewis Williams Douglas |
| Succeeded by | Winthrop W. Aldrich |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Walter Sherman Gifford January 10, 1885 Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. |
| Died | May 7, 1966 (aged 81) New York, New York, U.S.A. |
| Parents | Nathan P. Gifford and Harriet M. Spinney |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Occupation | President of AT&T |
| Religion | Christianity |
Walter Sherman Gifford (January 10, 1885 – May 7, 1966), born in Salem, Massachusetts, United States, is best known as the president of the AT&T Corporation from 1925 to 1948, after which he served as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1950 to 1953.
Walter Sherman Gifford was born in Salem, Massachusetts on January 10, 1885. He graduated from Harvard University in 1905. In July 1906 he joined the Western Electric Company in Chicago as Assistant Secretary and Treasurer. In 1911 Gifford left Western Electric, went to Arizona in a copper mining venture that he tired of after six months. However, Theodore N. Vail hired him as Chief statistician for American Telephone & Telegraph in New York. In 1916 he was called to national service during World War I.
During the war he became Supervising Director of the Committee on Industrial Preparedness of the National Consulting Board, Director of the Council of National Defense and Advisory Commission, and Secretary of the U. S. Representation on the Inter-Allied Munitions Council. After the war he returned to AT&T and soon became a Vice President. In 1925, at the age of only 40 years, he became the president of the AT&T Corporation when the existing president Harry Bates Thayer was made chairman of the board of directors. That same year he established the Bell Telephone Laboratories as a separate entity which would take over the work being conducted by Western Electric's engineering department's research division. According to one historian,
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