lawyer, businessman, diplomat, author, b. Milwaukee, the son of Patrick Cudahy (q.v.). He attended the Univ. of Wisconsin (1905-1906), graduated from Harvard Univ. (A.B., 1910), and received his law degree from the Univ. of Wisconsin in 1913. He practiced law in Milwaukee (1913-1917) and during World War I served as a captain with the 85th Division in the Archangel campaign (1918-1919). After the war he engaged in ranching in Mexico (1919-1921). Returning to Milwaukee (1921), he became vice- president of Cudahy Packing Company (1921-1923), and from 1923 to 1933 was engaged in the real-estate business. In 1933 he was appointed by President Roosevelt as ambassador to Poland, holding this position until 1937. He was minister to the Irish Free State (1937-1939), and ambassador to Belgium and minister to Luxembourg (1939-1940). He was chairman of the Wisconsin Council of Civilian Defense (1941-1943). In 1928-1929 he conducted the Cudahy-Massee-Milwaukee Museum expedition to Africa. He was author of Archangel; the American War with Russia (1924), Mananaland (1928), African Horizons (1930), and The Armies March, a Personal Report (1941). New York Times, Sept. 7, 1943; Milwaukee journal, Sept. 7, 1943; Natl. Cyclopaedia Amer. Biog., 33 (1947); F. L. Holmes, et al., eds., Wis. (5 vols., Chicago, 1946); Who's Who in Amer., 21 (1940).

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the John Cudahy Papers for details.

View a related article at Wisconsin Magazine of History Archives.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]