Chase Untermeyer

{{short description|American politician}}

{{BLP sources|date=April 2010}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Chase Untermeyer

| image = Chase untermeyer 2014.jpg

| office = United States Ambassador to Qatar

| president = George W. Bush

| term_start = December 7, 2004

| term_end = August 19, 2007

| predecessor = Maureen E. Quinn

| successor = Joseph LeBaron

| office1 = Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office

| president1 = George H. W. Bush

| term_start1 = 1989

| term_end1 = 1991

| predecessor1 = Robert H. Tuttle

| successor1 = Constance Horner

| office2 = Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs

| term_start2 = December 1984

| term_end2 = April 1988

| president2 = Ronald Reagan

| predecessor2 = Chapman B. Cox

| successor2 = Kenneth Bergquist

| state_house3 = Texas

| district3 = 83rd

| term_start3 = January 11, 1977

| term_end3 = January 13, 1981

| predecessor3 = Larry Vick

| successor3 = Ashley Smith

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1946|3|7}}

| birth_place = Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| party = Republican

| education = Harvard University (BA)

}}

Charles Graves "Chase" Untermeyer (born March 7, 1946), is a former United States ambassador to Qatar. He was given a recess appointment by U.S. President George W. Bush and assumed the position on August 2, 2004. After three years, he was succeeded by Joseph LeBaron.

A native of Long Branch, New Jersey, Untermeyer graduated in 1964 from Memorial High School in Houston, Texas and, later (1968), from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While at Harvard, he worked in the 1966 congressional campaign of future U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush of Houston.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/12/03/672835677/ex-staffers-who-live-in-texas-will-travel-with-bush-casket-to-d-c|title=Ex-Staffers Who Live In Texas Will Travel With Bush Casket To D.C.|website=NPR.org|language=en|access-date=2019-06-13}}

He entered the United States Navy after Harvard under the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program. He served during the Vietnam War as an officer aboard the Pacific Fleet destroyer USS Benner (DD-807) and as aide and flag lieutenant to the late Rear Admiral Draper L. Kauffman, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in the Philippines.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nrotc.navy.mil/famous_grads.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160110102631/http://www.nrotc.navy.mil/famous_grads.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 10, 2016|title=Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps - Famous Graduates|website=www.nrotc.navy.mil|access-date=2019-06-13}}

Returning to Houston, Untermeyer was a reporter for the Houston Chronicle and executive assistant to the county judge of Harris County, Texas. In 1976, he was elected as a Republican to the Texas House of Representatives from Houston, serving until 1981, when he went to Washington.{{cite web | url=https://lrl.texas.gov/legeLeaders/members/memberDisplay.cfm?memberID=598&searchparams=chamber=H~city=Houston~countyID=0~RcountyID=~district=83~first=~gender=~last=~leaderNote=~leg=~party=Republican~roleDesc=~Committee= | title=Legislative Reference Library | Legislators and Leaders | Member profile }} There he served as executive assistant to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, 1981-1983; Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Installations and Facilities, 1983-1984; Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, 1984-1988; assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, 1989-1991; and Director of the Voice of America, 1991-1993.

Returning once more to Houston, Untermeyer was Director of Public Affairs for Compaq from 1993 to 2002, and Vice President for Government Affairs and professor of public policy at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston from 2002 to 2004.

His part-time public positions include: member and chairman of the United States Naval Academy Board of Visitors, 1993-1996; member of the Houston Port Commission, 1995-1998; member of the board of directors of National Public Radio (NPR), 1996-1998; member of the Texas State Board of Education, 1999-2003, serving as chairman from 1999-2001; member of the board of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico (Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico), 2002-2004; member of the Defense Health Board, 2008-2009; founding board member of the Episcopal Health Foundation, 2013-2016; and founding chairman of the Qatar-America Institute, 2017-2019. He is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and chairman of the board of Humanities Texas, the state humanities council.

He married the former Diana Cumming Kendrick of Sheridan, Wyoming, in 1990. They have a daughter, Ellyson Chase Untermeyer (born in 1993).