Paxton Hibben

Who was Paxton Hibben?

Paxton Pattison Hibben had a short but eventful career as a diplomat, journalist, author and humanitarian. After graduation from college he received a diplomatic appointment and served for seven years at a number of foreign posts. He then joined the Progressive Party and assisted Theodore Roosevelt in his 1912 presidential campaign. Hibben became a roving war correspondent in World War I, reporting on military action from several European fronts. He served on a military relief commission in Armenia after the war, and went on to assist the Red Cross in its efforts to rescue children in the Russian famine of 1921-23. Hibben wrote extensively on politics and international affairs, and published books on the Russian famine, the Greek monarchy, Henry Ward Beecher and William Jennings Bryan. His untimely death at age forty-eight was honored by the Russian government with a hero's burial in a Moscow cemetery.