Charles Burke Elbrick

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Hon. Charles Burke Elbrick, (b. Louisville, Kentucky, March 25th 1908, d. Washington, D.C. 1983). He graduated with a leading Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College, and narrowly missed selection for a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. Having joined the United States Foreign Service in 1932, Elbrick was initially appointed Vice Consul in Panama. After a number of interim responsibilities, he was promoted to Assistant Secretary (to the Secretary of State) for European Affairs in 1957. Thereafter, Ambassador Elbrick was variously the representative of the United States to Portugal (1958), Yugoslavia (1964) and Brazil (1969). In 1969 he was honoured by the US President with the rank of Career Ambassador.

While stationed in Brazil, Charles Burke Elbrick was kidnapped by a revolutionary group in Rio de Janeiro, on September 4, 1969. The incident formed the basis of the 1997 Bruno Barreto film Four Days in September (O Que É Isso, Companheiro?), starring Alan Arkin, Pedro Cardoso and Fisher Stevens. The storyline was adapted from the 1979 memoirs of Fernando Gabeira, former member of revolutionary cell MR-8 and latterly a journalist and congressman in Brazil's Green Party. Ambassador Elbrick completed his diplomatic career as under-secretary of State for European Affairs.

He was married to Elvira Lindsay Johnson, whose mother was Caroline Gilbert Johnson (a direct descendant of the founder of Gilbertsville (1787) Abijah Gilbert and his grandson, also Abijah Gilbert, United States Senator for Florida a year after its secession from the Union). Her father was Vice Admiral Alfred Wilkinson Johnson. By her, Charles Burke Elbrick had two children- Alfred Johnson Elbrick (b. Norfolk, Virginia, 12th November, 1938) and Valerie Elvira (b. Washington D.C., 21st March, 1942). Ambassador Elbrick was knighted in the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta ('Order of Malta') by the Prince and Grand Master, Fra' Angelo de Mojana di Cologna. He was knighted in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre by the Grand Master, His Eminence Maximilian, Cardinal de Furstenberg.