David Chavchavadze
Prince David Chavchacadze | |
---|---|
Born | London, England | May 20, 1924
Died | October 5, 2014 Washington DC, U.S. | (aged 90)
Noble family | Chavchavadze |
Father | Prince Paul Chavchavadze |
Mother | Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia |
Occupation | CIA Officer, author |
Prince David Chavchavadze (May 20, 1924 – October 5, 2014) was a British-born American author and a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer of Georgian-Russian origin.
Life and Death
Chavchavadze was born in London to Prince Paul Chavchavadze (1899–1971) and Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia (Romanov) (1901–1974), a descendant of a prominent Georgian noble family and the Imperial Russian dynasty.[1] His father, Prince Paul, was a fiction writer and translator of writings from Georgian into English, and an émigré in the United Kingdom, and then the United States. [citation needed]
Chavchavadze entered the United States Army in 1943 and served during World War II as liaison for the U.S. Army Air Force Lend-Lease supply operations to the Soviet Union. After the war, he entered Yale University where he was a member of The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, the second longest running a cappella group in the United States. He spent more than two decades of his career as a CIA officer in the Soviet Union Division.[2]
After his retirement, Chavchavadze specialized in tracing the nobility of Imperial Russia and authored The Grand Dukes (1989). He also published Crowns and Trenchcoats: A Russian Prince in the CIA (1989) based on his CIA experiences, and translated from Russian Stronger Than Power: A Collection of Stories by Sandji B. Balykov, an emigre Kalmyk writer. Additionally, he lectured part-time at Georgetown, The George Washington and George Mason Universities on Russian history and culture.
As a grandchild of a Russian Grand Duke, he was an Associate Member of the Romanov Family Association. Via his mother, Chavchavadze is great-great-grandson (through Grand Duke Mikhail Nicholaevich) and simultaneously great-great-great-grandson (through Queen of Greece, Olga Constantinovna) of Nicholas I.[3]
David Chavchavadze died in his sleep on October 5, 2014, aged 90, after a long illness.
Marriages and children
He married Helen Husted on 13 September 1952 and they were divorced in 1959. They have two daughters and three grandchildren:
- Princess Maria Chavchavadze (28 August 1953) married Alexander Rasic on 27 October 1990 and they were divorced. They have one daughter:
- Yelena Rasic (16 December 1990)
- Princess Alexandra Chavchavadze (24 December 1954) married Puthukuty Krishnan Ramani on 26 November 1988. They have two children:
- Alexander Chavchavadze Ramani-Poduval (18 May 1991)
- Caroline Chavchavadze Ramani-Poduval (6 June 1994)
He remarried Judith Clippinger on 28 December 1959 and they were divorced in 1970. They have two children and three grandchildren
- Princess Catherine Chavchavadze (29 December 1960) married John Alan Redpath on 22 September 1990. They have two daughters:
- Sophia Redpath (4 July 1996)
- Nina Nolan Redpath (13 October 1998)
- Prince Michael Chavchavadze (1 August 1966) married Colleen Quinn in 2011. They have one son:
- Prince David Chavchavadze (2016)
He remarried, again, Euginie de Smitt in 1979. They have one step-son, Paul George Olkhovsky (11 August 1960.)
See also
- Chavchavadze, Georgian surname
References
- ^ Genealogy, capecodhistory.us; accessed March 18, 2015.
- ^ Chavchavadze, David (1990). Crowns and Trenchcoats. A Russian Prince in the CIA. New York, NY: Atlantic International Publications. p. 315.
- ^ Chavchavadze, David. "The artistic legacy of two grandmothers" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2008-05-02.
External links
- Vladimir F. Wertsman, Georgian Americans. Multicultural America. Every Culture.
- Profile[permanent dead link], namebase.org; accessed March 18, 2015.
- 1924 births
- 2014 deaths
- Imperial Russian emigrants to the United Kingdom
- American people of Russian descent
- American people of Georgian (country) descent
- Nobility of Georgia (country)
- Russian nobility
- People of the Central Intelligence Agency
- Romanov Family Association members
- Yale University alumni
- Disease-related deaths in Washington, D.C.
- British emigrants to the United States