Carol C. Laise

Born in Winchester, Virginia, to Elizabeth Frances (née Stevens) and James Frederic Laise.{{cite book|title=Who's Who of American Women|url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoofamerica0000unse_o9a8|url-access=registration|year=1973|publisher=Marquis Who's Who|isbn=978-0-8379-0408-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/whoswhoofamerica0000unse_o9a8/page/540 540]}} She received a Bachelor of Arts in public administration in 1938 from American University, where she was a member of the Gamma Delta chapter of Phi Mu fraternity. She later received a Master of Arts in political science from George Washington University in 1940.{{cite news |author=Cook, Joan |title=Carol Laise, 73, Ex-Ambassador and High State Dept. Aide, Dies |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 26, 1991 |accessdate=2009-10-05 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/26/obituaries/carol-laise-73-ex-ambassador-and-high-state-dept-aide-dies.html }}NOTE: About half the references say the Laise obtained her MA from George Washington University and half say from American University. Who is right?

Laise began her career in government as a coder for the Civil Service Commission in 1940. She had a position in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration for a short time before joining the State Department in 1948. She was an adviser from 1956 to 1961, and in 1962 became deputy director of the Bureau of South Asian Affairs. In 1965, Laise was presented with the Federal Woman's Award.{{Cite journal |title=Ambassadors Laise and Bunker Are Married |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112108168839&seq=23 |journal=State Department Newsletter |pages=15 |via=Hathitrust}}

In 1965, Laise traveled to India and Pakistan as an adviser to Vice President Hubert Humphrey. After a year in New Delhi, President Lyndon B. Johnson named her ambassador to Nepal in 1966, a position she held until 1973. She was the fifth woman to be promoted to ambassador by Johnson.{{Cite journal |date=August 1966 |title=President Names Four New Envoys |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112108168821&seq=561 |journal=State Department Newsletter |pages=21 |via=Hathitrust}}

In October 1973, she became Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, and in 1974 became director general of the Foreign Service, until her retirement in 1977.{{cite web

|title=Caroline Clendening (Carol (Laise) Bunker) Laise (1917-1991) |work=Office of the Historian

|publisher=United States Department of State |date= |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/laise-caroline-clendening |accessdate=2009-10-05 }}

On January 3, 1967 she married 72-year-old ambassador-at-large Ellsworth Bunker in Kathmandu.{{cite news|date=January 4, 1967|title=U.S. Ambassadors Wed in Nepal; Carol C. Laise, Envoy in Katmandu, and Bunker Married: Two US Envoys Are Wed in Nepal|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/01/04/archives/us-ambassadors-wed-in-nepal-carol-claiseenvoy-in-katmandu-and.html?sq=ellsworth%2520bunker%2520%28wed%2520OR%2520wife%2520OR%2520marry%2520OR%2520married%2520OR%2520marriage%29&scp=1&st=cse|accessdate=2009-10-05}} Their marriage was the first between two American ambassadors on active duty. Laise continued using her maiden name professionally which was unusual at the time. Later that year, he was named ambassador to South Vietnam and for nearly the first six years of their marriage they only saw each other monthly, via a special government flight offered by President Johnson as enticement for Bunker to accept the post.{{cite web|last=Gillette|first=Michael L.|date=December 9, 1980|title=Transcript, Ellsworth Bunker Oral History Interview I, 12/9/80|url=http://memory.loc.gov/service/mss/mssmisc/mfdip/2005%20txt%20files/2004bun01.txt|accessdate=2011-02-20|publisher=LBJ Library}}

She died of cancer in Dummerston, Vermont at the age of 73.

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before=Michael Collins|

title=Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs|

after=John Reinhardt|

years=October 10, 1973 – March 27, 1975

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{{succession box|title=United States Ambassador to Nepal|before=Henry Stebbins|after=William Cargo|years=1966–1973}}

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Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Nepal

Category:United States assistant secretaries of state

Category:1991 deaths

Category:1917 births

Category:American women ambassadors

Category:American University alumni

Category:George Washington University alumni

Category:Directors general of the United States Foreign Service

Category:20th-century American diplomats