Introduction
Walter Joseph Patrick Curley II (September 17, 1922 – June 2, 2016) was the 57th United States Ambassador to France from 1989 to 1993 and the United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1975 to 1977. Curley was New York City's Commissioner of Public Events and Chief of Protocol from 1973 to 1974, during the administrations of John Lindsay and Abraham Beame.
He wrote two books on royalty, Vanishing Kingdoms, and Monarchs in Waiting, as well as two memoirs, Letters from the Pacific: 1943-1946, and Almost a Century: An American Life East and West of Suez. Curley was a graduate of Phillips Academy, Yale University and Harvard Business School. Curley was in the U.S. Marines during World War Two, serving from 1943-1946, seeing combat on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He was a captain and was decorated with a Bronze star. Curley died in New York City.