Joseph Elliott Slater papers, 1929-1996, bulk 1940-1996

Joseph Elliot Slater was born in Salt Lake City Utah on August 17, 1922. He attended University of California at Berkeley where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors. During World War II, Slater served as a Lieutenant in the US Navy while attending Harvard Business School. Slater is considered a figure in the denazification of Germany and from 1944-1954 he held a number of positions related to Post-War Germany and Europe. From 1945-1948 Slater served as the U.S. Secretary of Economics Directorate and the Assistant U.S. Secretary of Economic and Financial Affairs for the Quadripartite Allied Control Council in Berlin, which ruled Germany after its defeat. In 1949 Slater left the Council to work for the State Department during the founding of the United Nations. He soon returned to Germany to serve as the Secretary-General of the Allied High Commission for Germany under John J. McCloy. While in Germany, Joseph Slater met Annelore Kremser, whom he married. In 1952, the couple moved to Paris, where Slater worked as the executive secretary in the office of the United States representatives to North American Trade Organization (NATO) and the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), per the Marshall Plan.

Throughout the twentieth century Joseph E. Slater worked as an economist and directed international affairs efforts at a number of corporations. During his tenure as the Chief Economist at Creole Petroleum, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of N.J., Slater founded and became the Executive Director of Fundación Creole (the Creole Foundation). Through this foundation Slater aimed to make Creole Petroleum a good corporate citizen that allocated funds to education and cultural endeavors in Venezuela. During his time at both the Ford Foundation and Volvo North America, Slater remained interested in public relations and the role of the corporation in international affairs. Slater served as the Director of the Ford Foundation's International Affairs Program and Volvo's Public Issues Review Committee, respectively.

While at the Ford Foundation Slater spent time in Washington DC, working under Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. He was the Secretary for President Eisenhower's Commision on Foreign Assistance, also known as the Draper Committee, a non-partisan committee focused on the military assistance outlined in the 1949 Mutual Defense Assistance Act. From 1960-1961 Joseph E. Slater was the Assistant Managing Director of the Development Loan Fund while serving as a member of the President's Development Assistance Panel. Also during John F. Kennedy's presidency, Slater was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Education and Cultural Affairs. Slater remained as a consultant to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs from 1951-1968. During this time he wrote a blueprint for what would become the Peace Corps.

Slater served as the President and the CEO of the Salk Institute from 1967-1972 and held the same positions at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies from 1969-1986. Slater, along with Robert O. Anderson, helped make the Aspen Institute a crucial location for East-West relations and global communication. Slater ultimately oversaw the creation of an Aspen Institute Berlin and additional branches in France, Italy, Japan and South Korea. Slater is described throughout Sidney Hyman's book The Aspen Idea as a pivotal figure in the transformation of the organization into a global presence. After leaving the Aspen Institute, Slater served as the Chairman of the John J. McCloy International Center. In the final decade of his life Slater served as a trustee and member of the board of directors for a number of organizations related to education, science, the arts, and foreign relations. The organizations ranged from the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship and the President's Circle of the National Academy of Sciences, to the Cleveland School of Music's "Pianofest."

Slater spent the final decades of his life in New York City, where he and his wife lived in 870 United Nations Plaza, a building famous for its internationally famous residents including Walter Cronkite and Truman Capote. Joseph and Annelore, who was subsequently referred to as Anne Slater, had two daughters, Sandra and Bonnie. Slater died in 2002.