James R. Roosevelt

The life career of James Roosevelt Roosevelt was mainly that of many wealthy and public-spirited New Yorkers who, not encumbered by engrossing private business, gave their time and money to public and charitable purposes. Being a Roosevelt, however, and fairly close of kin to the most widely-known public man of that ilk [Theodore Roosevelt], it was natural that politics should have beckoned him, and he took his turn in diplomatic life. Being on the other hand a Democrat, in that family of more or less diversified political affiliation, it was from President Cleveland, that Mr. Roosevelt received his diplomatic initiation, serving in 1888 as Secretary of Legation at Vienna and again in 1893 as First Secretary of the Embassy at the Court of St. James; in both of which positions he was useful and popular. Mr. Roosevelt was an enthusiast in outdoor sports, an expert whip, hunter and yachtsman.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1928 Century Association Yearbook