In Memoriam: Ambassador Nicholas A. Rey

Nicholas A. Rey, who fled Poland with his family as a child after the outbreak of World War II and returned as the United States ambassador during the Clinton administration, died on Jan. 14 in Washington, D.C. Rey was a member of the National Democratic Institute’s board of directors.

“Nick brought his considerable knowledge and experience to the Institute,” said NDI president Kenneth Wollack. “And we benefitted measurably from his commitment to the organization and its mission.”

Previously a director of the Polish-American Enterprise Fund and a co-founder of the American Polish Advisory Council, Rey served as ambassador to Poland at a pivotal time, as the country consolidated its democratic turn and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The Washington Post, in its obituary for Rey, said:

Mr. Rey was 20 months old when his parents fled their native Poland on Sept. 5, 1939, four days after German forces invaded neighboring Poland and began World War II.

Michael Rey said his father's parents, who as members of the Polish intelligentsia expected to become victims of the Nazi forces, left in a diplomatic convoy to Austria. Rey said his grandfather had gained permission from the U.S. ambassador, Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Jr., for him, his wife and their infant son to join the diplomats.

Fifty-four years later, when Nicholas Rey hung his photograph in the U.S. embassy as the ambassador, he hung it beneath Biddle's photo, Michael Rey said.

The Institute extends its deepest condolences to Ambassador Rey’s family, and will always honor his many years of work – at the Institute and elsewhere – for human dignity and democracy. We will miss his leadership.