Leo S. Rowe

Leo Stanton Rowe. [Born] 1871. Teacher, Director of the Pan American Union.

Only three Centurions had their portraits on stamps while alive: Paderewski on a Polish stamp, Franklin D. Roosevelt on stamps of Turkey and Guatemala, and Dr. Rowe on a Nicaraguan stamp issued in 1940. Dr. Rowe’s company in Centurion philately is a measure of his stature in international affairs.

He was a member of the Commission appointed by President McKinley in 1900 to revise and compile the laws of Puerto Rico. He was a delegate to the Pan American Conference in Rio in 1906 and was Chairman of the First Pan American Scientific Congress in Santiago de Chile in 1908. He served on the United States–Panama Joint Claims Commission in 1913 and was Secretary-General of the Pan American Financial Congress in 1915. In 1917 he was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Treasury. Later he was transferred to the State Department as Chief of the Division of Latin American Affairs and in 1920 became Director General of the Pan American Union.

Until he went to the Treasury, these were added duties in the life of a busy professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. They convinced him that it was necessary for the American republics to understand and respect and do business with each other. His life thereafter was dedicated to that end. He made the Pan American Union into a far-reaching institution, interpreting the life and spirit of the elements of the Western Hemisphere to each other and to the world.

Source: Henry Allen Moe Papers, Mss.B.M722. Reproduced by permission of American Philosophical Society Library & Museum, Philadelphia

Henry Allen Moe
Henry Allen Moe Papers, 1946 Memorials

Rowe was born in Iowa and later taught political science and international law at the University of Pennsylvania for 20 years. During that time he became interested in Latin America and served on numerous committees and delegations. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (1917–19) under Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, he became director-general of the Pan American Union, the forerunner of the Organization of American States, serving for 25 years until his death in 1946. He promoted the “good-neighbor” policy toward Latin America and devoted his life to furthering understanding and integration among the region’s countries, particularly through higher education.

He founded the Leo S. Rowe Fund, an educational loan program of the Organization of American States to help citizens from Latin America and the Caribbean finance their studies or research in accredited universities across the United States. The fund is still active today awarding interest-free loans for up to $15,000.

Rowe was a member of the Century for 42 years.

James Charlton
“Centurions on Stamps,” Part I (Exhibition, 2010)