Robert P. DeVecchi, who helped resettle dispossessed people around the world as director, president and, ultimately, chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, died on Oct. 26 at his home in Southport, Conn. He was 85.
Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee first worked to help Jews flee Nazi Germany.
Under Mr. DeVecchi’s leadership, the committee created emergency relief programs in nearly 30 countries, including Bosnia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Somalia, Cambodia, Sudan and Iraq, and resettled more than 200,000 refugees in the United States.
Mr. DeVecchi also oversaw the creation of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, a group devoted to helping the disproportionately large number of refugee women.
During his tenure, from 1975 to 1997, the committee’s spending rose to more than $119 million a year, from $36 million (in 2015 dollars). Last year alone, the agency spent more than $509 million and resettled nearly 11,000 refugees in the United States.
Mr. DeVecchi’s first job with the organization was a four-week stint with a resettlement program at a refugee camp in Arkansas, where some 35,000 South Vietnamese refugees had been transferred after Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces in 1975.
A post on the committee’s website called finding sanctuary for the South Vietnamese “the largest refugee resettlement effort the country has ever seen.”
Later that year, Mr. DeVecchi became the committee’s program director for all of Indochina. In 1980 he became program director for the entire organization, and in 1985 he was named executive director. He was appointed chief executive and president in 1992, and held both positions until he retired in 1997.
Robert Paolo DeVecchi was born in Manhattan on Oct. 6, 1930. He grew up there and attended private schools before going to Yale University, from which he graduated in 1952. He served in the Air Force in Germany before receiving his master’s of business administration degree from Harvard in 1956.
He was posted in Paris, Warsaw and Rome as a foreign service officer in the State Department, then became the European director of the Conference Board, an economic think tank.
In 1972 he became director of inner cities programs for the Save the Children Federation in New York.
His first marriage, to Florence Sloan, ended in divorce. His second wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe, died in 2009. In addition to his daughter Angela, from his first marriage, he is survived by another daughter, also from that marriage, Margaret DeVecchi; three stepsons, William Douglass and William and John Duke; a stepdaughter, Terry Marsh; a sister, Margaret Gabriel; and 13 grandchildren.
In 2005 Yale awarded Mr. DeVecchi an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.
“You built the International Rescue Committee from a small organization into a global agency of caring and concern,” Yale wrote in announcing the degree. “Undaunted by the vast enterprise of assisting those displaced by war, famine and flood, you have retained an optimism of the possible.”∼Robert P. DeVecchi, who beginning in 1975 helped steer the International Rescue Committee into a leading global humanitarian organization as CEO and President, died on October 26th of natural causes at his home in Southport, Connecticut. He was 85 years old.
DeVecchi and his late wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe, retired to East Hampton, living in a carriage house on Dunemere Lane once belonging to her grandparents, and longtime summer colonists, Mr. and Mrs. Charles White Trippe. Devecchi first fell in love with the region when, as a student at New York City's Collegiate School, he attended house parties at the home of Betsy's parents, Juan and Betty Trippe, on West End Road. Later in life, after decades serving in the foreign service, DeVecchi reconnected with Betsy on Lexington Avenue as she was walking her son Doug's springer spaniel, Piper, short for Sandpiper of Bonac.
Born in New York City on October 6, 1930, DeVecchi attended the Buckley School, Lawrenceville and the Collegiate School. He graduated from Yale University in 1952, and received his MBA from Harvard University in 1956. DeVecchi served as a foreign service officer in the U.S. Department of State, in posts ranging from NATO headquarters in Paris to the U.S. embassies in Warsaw and Rome. In 1972, after serving as the European Director of the Conference Board, based in Paris, DeVecchi became Director of Inner Cities Programs, as well as the New York Representative of the Save the Children Foundation. DeVecchi joined the International Rescue Committee in 1975 as coordinator of the agency's Indochinese Refugee Resettlement Program, the largest refugee resettlement effort in U.S. history. He became IRC Program Director in 1980, Executive Director in 1985, and President and CEO in 1993, a position he held until 1997, when he was elected President Emeritus of the organization.
Under DeVecchi's leadership, the IRC played an increasingly important role in global relief and development while maintaining its position as one the leading American resettlement agencies. Among the numerous initiatives under DeVecchi's leadership was the creation of emergency relief programs in more than twenty-eight countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Iraq, El Salvador and Bosnia. Whether facing the civil war in the Balkans, the displacement of Kurds from northern Iraq after the Gulf War, drought and famine in Somalia, upheavals in West Africa, renewed warfare in Sudan, ethnic strife in Ethiopia, the civil war in Burundi or genocide in Rwanda, DeVecchi and the IRC played a crucial role in saving lives and alleviating suffering as, also under his leadership, the IRC did earlier in Thailand, Cambodia, Central America and Malawi.
DeVecchi also initiated a domestic refugee resettlement program in the United States. An average of one million refugees or displaced persons received IRC assistance every year, and up to ten thousand refugees were permanently resettled. After retiring from the IRC in 1997, DeVecchi was appointed Adjunct Senior Fellow for Refugees and the Displaced at the Council on Foreign Relations.
In 1996, he was awarded the Peacemakers Award of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C.; and in 1998, the IRC Freedom Award recognized him for his "extraordinary contribution to the cause of refugees and human freedom." In 2005, Yale University granted him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, noting, "Undaunted by the vast enterprise of assisting those displaced by war, famine, and flood, you have retained an optimism of the possible." DeVecchi was also a longtime member, and Director Emeriti, of Refugees International, and also of the FilmAid Advisory Council. His first marriage, to Florence Lincoln Sloan of New York, N.Y. and Greenwich, Connecticut, ended in divorce. His second wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe of New York City and East Hampton, died in 2009. He was a member of the Maidstone Club, St. Anthony's Hall, the Century Club, the Yale Club and the Pequot Yacht Club.
He is survived by two daughters, Margaret Lincoln DeVecchi of Northampton, Massachusetts, and Angela DeVecchi of Watertown, Massachusetts; by his stepchildren, William Douglass of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; William Duke of New York, N.Y., Terry Marsh of Bremen, Maine, and John Duke of Providence, Rhode Island; and by his grandchildren, Samuel Smith, Lily Smith, Susannah Smith, Sophie Smyke, Ethan Smyke, William Douglass, Elizabeth Douglass, John Marsh, Isabel Duke, Emily Duke, Owen Duke, Mea Duke and Trippe Duke. He is also survived by a sister, Margaret Gabriel, of Washington, DC. He will be loved and missed by all who knew him.
A memorial service will be held at St. James' Church, 865 Madison Avenue, on December 4, at 11AM, with a reception to follow at the Union Club. In lieu of donations, contributions can be made to the International Rescue Committee. For travel directions or to sign his online register, please visit www.LeskoPolkeFuneralHome.com - See more at: http://www.leskopolkefuneralhome.com/obituary/Robert-P.-DeVecchi/Southport-CT/1557171#sthash.WVqhovh8.dpuf
Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee first worked to help Jews flee Nazi Germany.
Under Mr. DeVecchi’s leadership, the committee created emergency relief programs in nearly 30 countries, including Bosnia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Somalia, Cambodia, Sudan and Iraq, and resettled more than 200,000 refugees in the United States.
Mr. DeVecchi also oversaw the creation of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, a group devoted to helping the disproportionately large number of refugee women.
During his tenure, from 1975 to 1997, the committee’s spending rose to more than $119 million a year, from $36 million (in 2015 dollars). Last year alone, the agency spent more than $509 million and resettled nearly 11,000 refugees in the United States.
Mr. DeVecchi’s first job with the organization was a four-week stint with a resettlement program at a refugee camp in Arkansas, where some 35,000 South Vietnamese refugees had been transferred after Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces in 1975.
A post on the committee’s website called finding sanctuary for the South Vietnamese “the largest refugee resettlement effort the country has ever seen.”
Later that year, Mr. DeVecchi became the committee’s program director for all of Indochina. In 1980 he became program director for the entire organization, and in 1985 he was named executive director. He was appointed chief executive and president in 1992, and held both positions until he retired in 1997.
Robert Paolo DeVecchi was born in Manhattan on Oct. 6, 1930. He grew up there and attended private schools before going to Yale University, from which he graduated in 1952. He served in the Air Force in Germany before receiving his master’s of business administration degree from Harvard in 1956.
He was posted in Paris, Warsaw and Rome as a foreign service officer in the State Department, then became the European director of the Conference Board, an economic think tank.
In 1972 he became director of inner cities programs for the Save the Children Federation in New York.
His first marriage, to Florence Sloan, ended in divorce. His second wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe, died in 2009. In addition to his daughter Angela, from his first marriage, he is survived by another daughter, also from that marriage, Margaret DeVecchi; three stepsons, William Douglass and William and John Duke; a stepdaughter, Terry Marsh; a sister, Margaret Gabriel; and 13 grandchildren.
In 2005 Yale awarded Mr. DeVecchi an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.
“You built the International Rescue Committee from a small organization into a global agency of caring and concern,” Yale wrote in announcing the degree. “Undaunted by the vast enterprise of assisting those displaced by war, famine and flood, you have retained an optimism of the possible.”∼Robert P. DeVecchi, who beginning in 1975 helped steer the International Rescue Committee into a leading global humanitarian organization as CEO and President, died on October 26th of natural causes at his home in Southport, Connecticut. He was 85 years old.
DeVecchi and his late wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe, retired to East Hampton, living in a carriage house on Dunemere Lane once belonging to her grandparents, and longtime summer colonists, Mr. and Mrs. Charles White Trippe. Devecchi first fell in love with the region when, as a student at New York City's Collegiate School, he attended house parties at the home of Betsy's parents, Juan and Betty Trippe, on West End Road. Later in life, after decades serving in the foreign service, DeVecchi reconnected with Betsy on Lexington Avenue as she was walking her son Doug's springer spaniel, Piper, short for Sandpiper of Bonac.
Born in New York City on October 6, 1930, DeVecchi attended the Buckley School, Lawrenceville and the Collegiate School. He graduated from Yale University in 1952, and received his MBA from Harvard University in 1956. DeVecchi served as a foreign service officer in the U.S. Department of State, in posts ranging from NATO headquarters in Paris to the U.S. embassies in Warsaw and Rome. In 1972, after serving as the European Director of the Conference Board, based in Paris, DeVecchi became Director of Inner Cities Programs, as well as the New York Representative of the Save the Children Foundation. DeVecchi joined the International Rescue Committee in 1975 as coordinator of the agency's Indochinese Refugee Resettlement Program, the largest refugee resettlement effort in U.S. history. He became IRC Program Director in 1980, Executive Director in 1985, and President and CEO in 1993, a position he held until 1997, when he was elected President Emeritus of the organization.
Under DeVecchi's leadership, the IRC played an increasingly important role in global relief and development while maintaining its position as one the leading American resettlement agencies. Among the numerous initiatives under DeVecchi's leadership was the creation of emergency relief programs in more than twenty-eight countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Iraq, El Salvador and Bosnia. Whether facing the civil war in the Balkans, the displacement of Kurds from northern Iraq after the Gulf War, drought and famine in Somalia, upheavals in West Africa, renewed warfare in Sudan, ethnic strife in Ethiopia, the civil war in Burundi or genocide in Rwanda, DeVecchi and the IRC played a crucial role in saving lives and alleviating suffering as, also under his leadership, the IRC did earlier in Thailand, Cambodia, Central America and Malawi.
DeVecchi also initiated a domestic refugee resettlement program in the United States. An average of one million refugees or displaced persons received IRC assistance every year, and up to ten thousand refugees were permanently resettled. After retiring from the IRC in 1997, DeVecchi was appointed Adjunct Senior Fellow for Refugees and the Displaced at the Council on Foreign Relations.
In 1996, he was awarded the Peacemakers Award of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C.; and in 1998, the IRC Freedom Award recognized him for his "extraordinary contribution to the cause of refugees and human freedom." In 2005, Yale University granted him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, noting, "Undaunted by the vast enterprise of assisting those displaced by war, famine, and flood, you have retained an optimism of the possible." DeVecchi was also a longtime member, and Director Emeriti, of Refugees International, and also of the FilmAid Advisory Council. His first marriage, to Florence Lincoln Sloan of New York, N.Y. and Greenwich, Connecticut, ended in divorce. His second wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe of New York City and East Hampton, died in 2009. He was a member of the Maidstone Club, St. Anthony's Hall, the Century Club, the Yale Club and the Pequot Yacht Club.
He is survived by two daughters, Margaret Lincoln DeVecchi of Northampton, Massachusetts, and Angela DeVecchi of Watertown, Massachusetts; by his stepchildren, William Douglass of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; William Duke of New York, N.Y., Terry Marsh of Bremen, Maine, and John Duke of Providence, Rhode Island; and by his grandchildren, Samuel Smith, Lily Smith, Susannah Smith, Sophie Smyke, Ethan Smyke, William Douglass, Elizabeth Douglass, John Marsh, Isabel Duke, Emily Duke, Owen Duke, Mea Duke and Trippe Duke. He is also survived by a sister, Margaret Gabriel, of Washington, DC. He will be loved and missed by all who knew him.
A memorial service will be held at St. James' Church, 865 Madison Avenue, on December 4, at 11AM, with a reception to follow at the Union Club. In lieu of donations, contributions can be made to the International Rescue Committee. For travel directions or to sign his online register, please visit www.LeskoPolkeFuneralHome.com - See more at: http://www.leskopolkefuneralhome.com/obituary/Robert-P.-DeVecchi/Southport-CT/1557171#sthash.WVqhovh8.dpuf
Robert P. DeVecchi, who helped resettle dispossessed people around the world as director, president and, ultimately, chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, died on Oct. 26 at his home in Southport, Conn. He was 85.
Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee first worked to help Jews flee Nazi Germany.
Under Mr. DeVecchi’s leadership, the committee created emergency relief programs in nearly 30 countries, including Bosnia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Somalia, Cambodia, Sudan and Iraq, and resettled more than 200,000 refugees in the United States.
Mr. DeVecchi also oversaw the creation of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, a group devoted to helping the disproportionately large number of refugee women.
During his tenure, from 1975 to 1997, the committee’s spending rose to more than $119 million a year, from $36 million (in 2015 dollars). Last year alone, the agency spent more than $509 million and resettled nearly 11,000 refugees in the United States.
Mr. DeVecchi’s first job with the organization was a four-week stint with a resettlement program at a refugee camp in Arkansas, where some 35,000 South Vietnamese refugees had been transferred after Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces in 1975.
A post on the committee’s website called finding sanctuary for the South Vietnamese “the largest refugee resettlement effort the country has ever seen.”
Later that year, Mr. DeVecchi became the committee’s program director for all of Indochina. In 1980 he became program director for the entire organization, and in 1985 he was named executive director. He was appointed chief executive and president in 1992, and held both positions until he retired in 1997.
Robert Paolo DeVecchi was born in Manhattan on Oct. 6, 1930. He grew up there and attended private schools before going to Yale University, from which he graduated in 1952. He served in the Air Force in Germany before receiving his master’s of business administration degree from Harvard in 1956.
He was posted in Paris, Warsaw and Rome as a foreign service officer in the State Department, then became the European director of the Conference Board, an economic think tank.
In 1972 he became director of inner cities programs for the Save the Children Federation in New York.
His first marriage, to Florence Sloan, ended in divorce. His second wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe, died in 2009. In addition to his daughter Angela, from his first marriage, he is survived by another daughter, also from that marriage, Margaret DeVecchi; three stepsons, William Douglass and William and John Duke; a stepdaughter, Terry Marsh; a sister, Margaret Gabriel; and 13 grandchildren.
In 2005 Yale awarded Mr. DeVecchi an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.
“You built the International Rescue Committee from a small organization into a global agency of caring and concern,” Yale wrote in announcing the degree. “Undaunted by the vast enterprise of assisting those displaced by war, famine and flood, you have retained an optimism of the possible.”∼Robert P. DeVecchi, who beginning in 1975 helped steer the International Rescue Committee into a leading global humanitarian organization as CEO and President, died on October 26th of natural causes at his home in Southport, Connecticut. He was 85 years old.
DeVecchi and his late wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe, retired to East Hampton, living in a carriage house on Dunemere Lane once belonging to her grandparents, and longtime summer colonists, Mr. and Mrs. Charles White Trippe. Devecchi first fell in love with the region when, as a student at New York City's Collegiate School, he attended house parties at the home of Betsy's parents, Juan and Betty Trippe, on West End Road. Later in life, after decades serving in the foreign service, DeVecchi reconnected with Betsy on Lexington Avenue as she was walking her son Doug's springer spaniel, Piper, short for Sandpiper of Bonac.
Born in New York City on October 6, 1930, DeVecchi attended the Buckley School, Lawrenceville and the Collegiate School. He graduated from Yale University in 1952, and received his MBA from Harvard University in 1956. DeVecchi served as a foreign service officer in the U.S. Department of State, in posts ranging from NATO headquarters in Paris to the U.S. embassies in Warsaw and Rome. In 1972, after serving as the European Director of the Conference Board, based in Paris, DeVecchi became Director of Inner Cities Programs, as well as the New York Representative of the Save the Children Foundation. DeVecchi joined the International Rescue Committee in 1975 as coordinator of the agency's Indochinese Refugee Resettlement Program, the largest refugee resettlement effort in U.S. history. He became IRC Program Director in 1980, Executive Director in 1985, and President and CEO in 1993, a position he held until 1997, when he was elected President Emeritus of the organization.
Under DeVecchi's leadership, the IRC played an increasingly important role in global relief and development while maintaining its position as one the leading American resettlement agencies. Among the numerous initiatives under DeVecchi's leadership was the creation of emergency relief programs in more than twenty-eight countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Iraq, El Salvador and Bosnia. Whether facing the civil war in the Balkans, the displacement of Kurds from northern Iraq after the Gulf War, drought and famine in Somalia, upheavals in West Africa, renewed warfare in Sudan, ethnic strife in Ethiopia, the civil war in Burundi or genocide in Rwanda, DeVecchi and the IRC played a crucial role in saving lives and alleviating suffering as, also under his leadership, the IRC did earlier in Thailand, Cambodia, Central America and Malawi.
DeVecchi also initiated a domestic refugee resettlement program in the United States. An average of one million refugees or displaced persons received IRC assistance every year, and up to ten thousand refugees were permanently resettled. After retiring from the IRC in 1997, DeVecchi was appointed Adjunct Senior Fellow for Refugees and the Displaced at the Council on Foreign Relations.
In 1996, he was awarded the Peacemakers Award of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C.; and in 1998, the IRC Freedom Award recognized him for his "extraordinary contribution to the cause of refugees and human freedom." In 2005, Yale University granted him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, noting, "Undaunted by the vast enterprise of assisting those displaced by war, famine, and flood, you have retained an optimism of the possible." DeVecchi was also a longtime member, and Director Emeriti, of Refugees International, and also of the FilmAid Advisory Council. His first marriage, to Florence Lincoln Sloan of New York, N.Y. and Greenwich, Connecticut, ended in divorce. His second wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe of New York City and East Hampton, died in 2009. He was a member of the Maidstone Club, St. Anthony's Hall, the Century Club, the Yale Club and the Pequot Yacht Club.
He is survived by two daughters, Margaret Lincoln DeVecchi of Northampton, Massachusetts, and Angela DeVecchi of Watertown, Massachusetts; by his stepchildren, William Douglass of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; William Duke of New York, N.Y., Terry Marsh of Bremen, Maine, and John Duke of Providence, Rhode Island; and by his grandchildren, Samuel Smith, Lily Smith, Susannah Smith, Sophie Smyke, Ethan Smyke, William Douglass, Elizabeth Douglass, John Marsh, Isabel Duke, Emily Duke, Owen Duke, Mea Duke and Trippe Duke. He is also survived by a sister, Margaret Gabriel, of Washington, DC. He will be loved and missed by all who knew him.
A memorial service will be held at St. James' Church, 865 Madison Avenue, on December 4, at 11AM, with a reception to follow at the Union Club. In lieu of donations, contributions can be made to the International Rescue Committee. For travel directions or to sign his online register, please visit www.LeskoPolkeFuneralHome.com - See more at: http://www.leskopolkefuneralhome.com/obituary/Robert-P.-DeVecchi/Southport-CT/1557171#sthash.WVqhovh8.dpuf
Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee first worked to help Jews flee Nazi Germany.
Under Mr. DeVecchi’s leadership, the committee created emergency relief programs in nearly 30 countries, including Bosnia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Somalia, Cambodia, Sudan and Iraq, and resettled more than 200,000 refugees in the United States.
Mr. DeVecchi also oversaw the creation of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, a group devoted to helping the disproportionately large number of refugee women.
During his tenure, from 1975 to 1997, the committee’s spending rose to more than $119 million a year, from $36 million (in 2015 dollars). Last year alone, the agency spent more than $509 million and resettled nearly 11,000 refugees in the United States.
Mr. DeVecchi’s first job with the organization was a four-week stint with a resettlement program at a refugee camp in Arkansas, where some 35,000 South Vietnamese refugees had been transferred after Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces in 1975.
A post on the committee’s website called finding sanctuary for the South Vietnamese “the largest refugee resettlement effort the country has ever seen.”
Later that year, Mr. DeVecchi became the committee’s program director for all of Indochina. In 1980 he became program director for the entire organization, and in 1985 he was named executive director. He was appointed chief executive and president in 1992, and held both positions until he retired in 1997.
Robert Paolo DeVecchi was born in Manhattan on Oct. 6, 1930. He grew up there and attended private schools before going to Yale University, from which he graduated in 1952. He served in the Air Force in Germany before receiving his master’s of business administration degree from Harvard in 1956.
He was posted in Paris, Warsaw and Rome as a foreign service officer in the State Department, then became the European director of the Conference Board, an economic think tank.
In 1972 he became director of inner cities programs for the Save the Children Federation in New York.
His first marriage, to Florence Sloan, ended in divorce. His second wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe, died in 2009. In addition to his daughter Angela, from his first marriage, he is survived by another daughter, also from that marriage, Margaret DeVecchi; three stepsons, William Douglass and William and John Duke; a stepdaughter, Terry Marsh; a sister, Margaret Gabriel; and 13 grandchildren.
In 2005 Yale awarded Mr. DeVecchi an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.
“You built the International Rescue Committee from a small organization into a global agency of caring and concern,” Yale wrote in announcing the degree. “Undaunted by the vast enterprise of assisting those displaced by war, famine and flood, you have retained an optimism of the possible.”∼Robert P. DeVecchi, who beginning in 1975 helped steer the International Rescue Committee into a leading global humanitarian organization as CEO and President, died on October 26th of natural causes at his home in Southport, Connecticut. He was 85 years old.
DeVecchi and his late wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe, retired to East Hampton, living in a carriage house on Dunemere Lane once belonging to her grandparents, and longtime summer colonists, Mr. and Mrs. Charles White Trippe. Devecchi first fell in love with the region when, as a student at New York City's Collegiate School, he attended house parties at the home of Betsy's parents, Juan and Betty Trippe, on West End Road. Later in life, after decades serving in the foreign service, DeVecchi reconnected with Betsy on Lexington Avenue as she was walking her son Doug's springer spaniel, Piper, short for Sandpiper of Bonac.
Born in New York City on October 6, 1930, DeVecchi attended the Buckley School, Lawrenceville and the Collegiate School. He graduated from Yale University in 1952, and received his MBA from Harvard University in 1956. DeVecchi served as a foreign service officer in the U.S. Department of State, in posts ranging from NATO headquarters in Paris to the U.S. embassies in Warsaw and Rome. In 1972, after serving as the European Director of the Conference Board, based in Paris, DeVecchi became Director of Inner Cities Programs, as well as the New York Representative of the Save the Children Foundation. DeVecchi joined the International Rescue Committee in 1975 as coordinator of the agency's Indochinese Refugee Resettlement Program, the largest refugee resettlement effort in U.S. history. He became IRC Program Director in 1980, Executive Director in 1985, and President and CEO in 1993, a position he held until 1997, when he was elected President Emeritus of the organization.
Under DeVecchi's leadership, the IRC played an increasingly important role in global relief and development while maintaining its position as one the leading American resettlement agencies. Among the numerous initiatives under DeVecchi's leadership was the creation of emergency relief programs in more than twenty-eight countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Iraq, El Salvador and Bosnia. Whether facing the civil war in the Balkans, the displacement of Kurds from northern Iraq after the Gulf War, drought and famine in Somalia, upheavals in West Africa, renewed warfare in Sudan, ethnic strife in Ethiopia, the civil war in Burundi or genocide in Rwanda, DeVecchi and the IRC played a crucial role in saving lives and alleviating suffering as, also under his leadership, the IRC did earlier in Thailand, Cambodia, Central America and Malawi.
DeVecchi also initiated a domestic refugee resettlement program in the United States. An average of one million refugees or displaced persons received IRC assistance every year, and up to ten thousand refugees were permanently resettled. After retiring from the IRC in 1997, DeVecchi was appointed Adjunct Senior Fellow for Refugees and the Displaced at the Council on Foreign Relations.
In 1996, he was awarded the Peacemakers Award of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C.; and in 1998, the IRC Freedom Award recognized him for his "extraordinary contribution to the cause of refugees and human freedom." In 2005, Yale University granted him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, noting, "Undaunted by the vast enterprise of assisting those displaced by war, famine, and flood, you have retained an optimism of the possible." DeVecchi was also a longtime member, and Director Emeriti, of Refugees International, and also of the FilmAid Advisory Council. His first marriage, to Florence Lincoln Sloan of New York, N.Y. and Greenwich, Connecticut, ended in divorce. His second wife, Betsy Stettinius Trippe of New York City and East Hampton, died in 2009. He was a member of the Maidstone Club, St. Anthony's Hall, the Century Club, the Yale Club and the Pequot Yacht Club.
He is survived by two daughters, Margaret Lincoln DeVecchi of Northampton, Massachusetts, and Angela DeVecchi of Watertown, Massachusetts; by his stepchildren, William Douglass of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; William Duke of New York, N.Y., Terry Marsh of Bremen, Maine, and John Duke of Providence, Rhode Island; and by his grandchildren, Samuel Smith, Lily Smith, Susannah Smith, Sophie Smyke, Ethan Smyke, William Douglass, Elizabeth Douglass, John Marsh, Isabel Duke, Emily Duke, Owen Duke, Mea Duke and Trippe Duke. He is also survived by a sister, Margaret Gabriel, of Washington, DC. He will be loved and missed by all who knew him.
A memorial service will be held at St. James' Church, 865 Madison Avenue, on December 4, at 11AM, with a reception to follow at the Union Club. In lieu of donations, contributions can be made to the International Rescue Committee. For travel directions or to sign his online register, please visit www.LeskoPolkeFuneralHome.com - See more at: http://www.leskopolkefuneralhome.com/obituary/Robert-P.-DeVecchi/Southport-CT/1557171#sthash.WVqhovh8.dpuf
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