Graduate student Tim Landry has contributed to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s scholarship of Jefferson Caffery, who served as U.S. ambassador from 1926 to 1955.
Landry earned the annual Jefferson Caffery Research Award earlier this year. It is given to an undergraduate or graduate UL Lafayette student, based on papers about the diplomat that are submitted for a competition conducted by Edith Garland Dupré Library on campus.
The contest, which includes a $500 prize, is held to encourage students to conduct scholarly research using materials in Special Collections. Entries are judged by a panel composed of members of the library committee, library staff members and others designated by the panel, based on quality of research, clarity and writing skill.
Landry is pursuing a master’s degree in history. His winning paper is titled “Conservative Aristocrat and Assertive Ambassador: Jefferson Caffery at the Headwaters of American Involvement in Vietnam, 1944-1947.”
“He played what I felt was a pivotal role in what became U.S. involvement in Vietnam when he became U.S. ambassador to France,” Landry explained.
History has been a lifelong passion for Landry, 56. He’s on track to earn a master’s degree this year, and plans to pursue a doctoral degree. He then wants to teach at a university.
“People have told me over the years I sound like a history professor. My goal is to become one,” said Landry, who spent 15 years as an ordained minister and 20 years in business management.
His primary research interests center on American political history in the 20th century. Caffery falls right into that slot, Landry added.
The ambassador was a member of the University’s first graduating class in 1903. His career in international diplomacy began in 1911 when he entered the Foreign Service during President William Howard Taft’s presidency. Caffery ultimately served under Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. He was ambassador to El Salvador, Colombia, Cuba, Brazil, France and Egypt.
Caffery died in 1974; he was 87. The award is supported by a fund established in 1967 by Caffery and his wife, Gertrude Caffery.
For more information about Edith Garland Dupré Library, visit library.louisiana.edu.
Shown from left, are Dr. Bruce Turner, assistant dean of Special Collections, and graduate student Tim Landry. A portrait of U.S. Ambassador Caffery is in the background.