Adolf Cornelius van Hemert Engert was born in Vienna, Austria on New Year's Eve 1887,[1] to a Russian citizen father and a Hungarian Jewish mother.
His father, John Cornelius Engert, a trader by profession, was of Dutch origin; he died within a year, leaving his mother, Irma Babetz, to raise him in Austria-Hungary.
[3] In the early 1920s, Engert briefly served in Iran as acting U.S. minister;[7] as he was proceeding to his post, he happened to witness the Iraqi revolt of 1920 against Arnold Wilson.
[3] In the summer of 1935, Engert was assigned to Addis Ababa, to serve as the United States chargé d'affaires there;[11] he was received by Emperor Haile Selassie in August.
Despite Engert's attempts to protect American personnel, the intervening days between the flight of the Emperor on May 2, the immediate collapse of civil order, and the Italian march toward Addis Ababa left his charges vulnerable: Engert, his wife, and the rest of the legation staff, along with Greek civilians and American journalists, came under attack from Ethiopian bandits in the attack on the United States embassy in Addis Ababa.
[9]: 5 Additionally, Engert offered his opinion on the waning years of Reza Shah's regime: repressive and stifling in its lack of political debate, floundering in its meager attempts at a census, yet courageous in introducing mandatory unveiling of women.
[9]: 147 In 1941, while serving in Beirut, Engert witnessed the Syria–Lebanon campaign, as Vichy France requested that he mediate ceasefire negotiations which were promptly rejected by the British; ultimately, the Allies emerged victorious in the region.
During his time in Afghanistan, Engert was instrumental in the opening of the Afghan economy to the world, and created opportunities for economic development,[25] which, in the words of Leon B. Poullada, were later "wasted through ignorance, apathy, and bumbling diplomacy".
[28] Immediately after his retirement, Engert joined the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration as a diplomat,[29] heading a mission to Turkey in March 1946.
[33] Cunningham was a socialite, amateur bookbinder (and life member of the Guild of Book Workers),[34] and former nurse during World War I, for which she had received the Medal of French Gratitude.
[1] Sara would join her husband at his posts, most famously at Addis Ababa, for which she was later nominated for a Congressional Medal of Honor by Edith Nourse Rogers for her actions during the embassy attack.