James P. Grant

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James P. "Jim" Grant (May 12, 1922–January 28, 1995) was an American statesman and children's advocate. Grant served for 15 years as the third executive director of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), with the rank of Under Secretary-General,

Grant was born in Beijing as a Canadian citizen. He lived in China, where his father worked as a medical missionary, until age 15. Grant attended the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1943 in economics. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen after World War II, and in 1951 graduated from Harvard Law School.

Grant began his international civil service in the 1940s working in China with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

In 1962, was named Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and South Asian Affairs and deputy director of the International Cooperation Administration, the precursor to the United States Agency for International Development. Grant served until 1969, as an assistant administrator of USAID. After he level he formed the Overseas Development Council, becoming its president and CEO. Grant left the ODC after being appointed UNICEF executive director. He served in that position from January 1980 to January 1995. Grant was diagnosed with cancer in May 1993, but continued to lead UNICEF until he resigned on January 23, 1995 and died a few days later, at age 72.

Nicholas D. Kristof wrote in 2008 that Grant, "a little-known American aid worker," had "probably saved more lives than were destroyed by Hitler, Mao, and Stalin combined" through his promotion of vaccinations and diarrhea treatments.^[1]