Henry E. Stebbins

{{Infobox officeholder

| office = 7th United States Ambassador to Nepal

| president = Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson

|term_start = November 25, 1959

|term_end = June 10, 1966

|predecessor = Ellsworth Bunker

|successor = Carol Laise

|office2 = 2nd United States Ambassador to Uganda

| president2 = Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard Nixon

|term_start2 = July 22, 1966

|term_end2 = September 2, 1969

|predecessor2 = Olcott Deming

|successor2 = Clarence Clyde Ferguson, Jr.

| birth_date = 1905

| birth_place = Milton, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1973|03|23|1905}}

| death_place = Atlantic Ocean

| body_discovered =

| education =

| occupation = American ambassador for Nepal and Uganda

| spouse =

| parents =

| children =

}}

Henry Endicott Stebbins (1905 in Milton, Massachusetts – 1973) was a career Foreign Service Officer who was the first US Ambassador to Nepal. He also served as Ambassador to Uganda.{{cite web |title=Ambassador Henry Endicott Stebbins (1905-1973) |url=http://www.miltonhistoricalsociety.org/Sampler/Ambassador-Henry-Endicott-Stebbins.html |website=Milton Historical Society |accessdate=2 November 2019}}{{cite web |title=Persons and Pseudonyms |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v23/persons |website=Office of the Historian |accessdate=2 November 2019}}

Early life

Stebbins’ parents were Rev. Roderick Stebbins and Edith Endicott (Marean) Stebbins. He graduated from Milton Academy and then Harvard in 1927.

Career

On July 1, 1939, Stebbins entered the State Department as foreign service officer of Class 8. He had various posts throughout Europe and Turkey before being named vice consul in London under Joseph P. Kennedy in 1939. When he was first secretary of the London Embassy in 1945, he met his future wife, Barbara Jennifer Worthington, a native of Dorset, England. In 1951 he went to Melbourne, Australia as Consul. President Dwight D. Eisenhower promoted him to foreign service inspector in 1955, naming him senior inspector a year later. In 1959 Eisenhower named Stebbins the first Ambassador to Nepal where he served until 1966.{{Cite news |title=USEF at 50 ; The Fulbright Program has been an 'asha kendra' - centre of hope - for thousands of Nepalis for half a century|work=Nepali Times |url=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17975 |access-date=2023-07-01 |first=Michael|last=Gill|issue=542|date=25 February 2011|quote=One can imagine the scene, on a dusty pre-monsoon day in June 1961, in one of the ornate halls of Singha Darbar. Vishwa Bandhu Thapa, then Nepal's 33-year-old Minister of Education, received the American Ambassador, Henry Endicott Stebbins.}}

When his 89 year old mother found out President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him Ambassador to Uganda in 1966, she said she was thrilled to hear of his appointment but wished he was a street sweeper in Milton because “at least he’d be home.” He retired from the Service three years later, returning to Milton.

Death

On March 28, 1973, Stebbins apparently fell from the deck of the S.S. Leonardo da Vinci and was considered lost at sea.{{Cite news |date=1973-03-30 |title=Retired U.S. Envoy Is Reported, Missing From a Liner at Say |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/03/30/archives/retired-us-envoy-is-reported-missing-from-a-liner-at-sea.html |access-date=2023-07-01 |issn=0362-4331|quote=Mrs. Stebbins promptly reported his absence to the Ship's officers, who conducted a search of the 22,000‐ton liner. They concluded that he had fallen overboard at a time when the sea was rough. At the time that Mr. Stebbins' disappearance was confirmed, the ship was 300 miles from its midnight location, and the captain judged it useless, to turn back.}}