Heyward Isham

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title: "Heyward Isham" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ambassadors-of-the-united-states-to-haiti", "yale-university-alumni", "1926-births", "2009-deaths", "phillips-academy-alumni", "united-states-foreign-service-personnel", "20th-century-american-diplomats", "united-states-coordinators-for-counterterrorism"] description: "American diplomat" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heyward_Isham" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American diplomat ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
office	2nd Coordinator for Counterterrorism
term_start	October 26, 1977
term_end	August 1, 1978
president	Jimmy Carter
predecessor	L. Douglas Heck
successor	Anthony C. E. Quainton
ambassador_from1	United States
country1	Haiti
term_start1	January 31, 1974
term_end1	July 8, 1977
president1	Gerald R. Ford
Jimmy Carter
predecessor1	Clinton E. Knox
successor1	William Bowdoin Jones
name	Heyward Isham
birth_name	Henry Heyward Isham
birth_date
birth_place	New York City, New York, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Southampton, New York, U.S.
education	Phillips Academy,
Yale University
spouse	Sheila Eaton Isham
children	3, including Chris Isham
::

| office = 2nd Coordinator for Counterterrorism | term_start = October 26, 1977 | term_end = August 1, 1978 | president = Jimmy Carter | predecessor = L. Douglas Heck | successor = Anthony C. E. Quainton | ambassador_from1 = United States | country1 = Haiti | term_start1 = January 31, 1974 | term_end1 = July 8, 1977 | president1 = Gerald R. Ford Jimmy Carter | predecessor1 = Clinton E. Knox | successor1 = William Bowdoin Jones | name = Heyward Isham | birth_name = Henry Heyward Isham | birth_date = | birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Southampton, New York, U.S. | education = Phillips Academy, Yale University | spouse = Sheila Eaton Isham | children = 3, including Chris Isham Henry Heyward Isham (November 4, 1926 – June 18, 2009), was an American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer and editor. He was the negotiator who played an important role in the talks with North Vietnam that led to the Peace accord of 1973.

Biography

Heyward Isham was born in New York City on November 4, 1926. His father Ralph Heyward Isham, born in New York City, was a noted retired British Army officer and collector of rare books. His mother was Margaret Hurt Isham; his younger brother Jonathan was born in 1929; his parents divorced in 1934. He graduated from Phillips Academy.

Isham studied International Relations at Yale College, graduating in 1947 before being posted to the American Embassy in Berlin during the Cold War. From 1955 through 1957, he was chief of the consular section and political office at the United States Embassy in Moscow. From 1974 to 1977, after a posting in Hong Kong, Isham was the American ambassador to Haiti.

After his retirement from the diplomatic service he worked as an editor with Doubleday publishers. During this period he supervised the publication of the memoirs of Andrei A. Gromyko, the Soviet foreign minister from 1957 to 1985, and other books by Russians.

Personal life

He was married to the artist Sheila (née Eaton) with whom he had three children. Son Christopher Isham was named Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief for CBS News in July 2007. Son Ralph Heyward Isham is the founder and managing director of GH Venture Partners LLC and is married to designer and artist Ala von Auersperg, daughter of Sunny von Bülow and co-founder of the National Center for Victims of Crime. Daughter Sandra Isham Vreeland was a poet and the director of an AIDS poetry project for youth; she died in 1996.

References

References

1. Martin Weil, "Deft peace negotiator whose other side did not spare the rod" ''The Age'' (July 16, 2009): 19.
2. "Ralph Heyward Isham, American collector".
3. Hevesi, Dennis. (June 23, 2009). "Heyward Isham, a Negotiator With Hanoi, Dies at 82". The New York Times.
4. (April 3, 1950). "Miss Sheila Eaton Engaged to Marry; Senior at Bryn Mawr Fiancee of Heyward Isham, Son of Noted Book Collector". The New York Times.
5. (2020). "Ralph H. Isham – Position: Board Member". [[EastWest Institute]].
6. Swanson, Carl. (March 14, 2019). "How Sunny Von Bulow's Daughter Ala Isham Found Her Voice". [[Town & Country Magazine]].
7. PC Studios. (April 20, 2021). "This Designing Family's New Collection Brings the Beauty and Joy Back — Ala von Auersperg Makes it Effortless". PaperCity Magazine.
8. (August 6, 1996). "Sandra I. Vreeland, Poetry Director, 38". The New York Times.

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