[3] His father was a diplomat during the 1890s and 1900s who served as United States Ambassador to France and Italy,[4] and one of the signers of the Treaty of Versailles.

[5] His only sibling was Margaret Muriel White (1880–1943), who married Count Ernst Hans Christoph Roger Hermann Seherr-Thoss, a Prussian aristocrat in 1909.

[8] His maternal grandparents were Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (1816–1892), the lawyer and pioneering astrophotographer, and Margaret Stuyvesant Chanler (1820–1890).

[15] On April 14, 1943, the legation was upgraded to an Embassy and he became the United States Ambassador to Haiti, serving until February 24, 1944.

[14] On January 29, 1944, he was appointed the United States Ambassador to Peru, beginning his service on April 4, 1944 and serving until June 17, 1945 when he left his post.