Samuel Augustus “Sam” Nunn, Jr. is an American lawyer and politician. Currently the co-chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons,

Nunn served for 24 years as a United States Senator from Georgia (1972 until 1997) as a member of the Democratic Party. His political experience and credentials on national defense reportedly made him a potential running mate for Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry (2004) and Barack Obama (2008).

Victor de Bedia Oland, OC ED CD was the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia from 1968 to 1973. In 1980, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

William Bacon Oliver was a Congressman from Alabama. He was born in Eutaw, Alabama, graduated from the University of Alabama in 1887 and from the law department in 1889. After additional courses at the University of Virginia in the same year, he was admitted to the Alabama bar, and set up a practice in Tuscaloosa.

Oliver became dean of the law school of the University of Alabama in 1909, serving until 1913, then ran successfully for Congress in 1914, and remained there for eleven Congresses, not standing for reelection in 1936. He then served as a special assistant to the United States Attorney General from 1939 to 1944, at which time he retired.

The William Bacon Oliver Lock and Dam on the Black Warrior River in Alabama is named after him, as is Oliver Lake behind the dam.

James Whetstone Overstreet was a U.S. Representative from Georgia.

Overstreet served as member of the State house of representatives in 1898 and 1899. He served as member of the Democratic executive committee in 1905 and 1906. Overstreet was appointed judge of the city court of Sylvania in December 1902 and served until October 1, 1906, when he resigned.

Overstreet was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-ninth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Rufus E. Lester and served from October 3, 1906, to March 4, 1907. He resumed the practice of law in Sylvania. Overstreet served as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1912.

Overstreet was elected to the Sixty-fifth, Sixty-sixth, and Sixty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1917 – March 3, 1923). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1922. He then resumed the practice of law in Sylvania, Georgia, where he died December 4, 1938.

Malcolm Rice Patterson was an American politician and jurist. He served as Governor of Tennessee from 1907 to 1911, and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1901 to 1906. He later served as a circuit court judge in Memphis (1923-1934), and wrote a weekly column for the Memphis Commercial Appeal (1921-1933).

During Patterson’s term as governor, he created a State Highway Commission, signed legislation that banned gambling on horse races, and enacted food and drug regulations. Patterson was the first governor to occupy a governor’s mansion (previous governors had lived in hotel rooms), which was purchased by the state, and occupied by successive governors until 1922, when a new residence was built. At the beginning of his second term in 1909, he signed the General Education Act, which created four colleges: East Tennessee State University, Middle Tennessee State University, the University of Memphis, and Tennessee State University.

Robert Porter Patterson, Sr. was the United States Secretary of War under President Franklin Roosevelt and the United States Secretary of War under President Harry S. Truman from September 27, 1945 to July 18, 1947.

After graduating from Union and Harvard Law School, Patterson practiced law in New York City. He served in the U.S Army during WWI, reaching the rank of major, and received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism in France.

President Hoover appointed Patterson as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1930. And was then promoted by President Roosevelt to the United Stated Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Fifteen months later, he left the bench to become the Assistant Secretary of War and then Secretary of War in 1940 under Roosevelt. He was instrumental in the mobilization of armed forced before and during WWII.

In 1945 Patterson was appointed Secretary of War by President Truman. He advocated for the unifying of the armed services, the National Security Act of 1947, and the the creation of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Wilton Burton “Jerry” Persons served as the White House Chief of Staff to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from October 7, 1958 until January 20, 1961.

Persons was a career United States Army officer who had entered the U.S. Army Coast Artillery in 1917 and advanced through the ranks to major general in 1944. He had served in both the American Expeditionary Force in World War I and in Europe in World War II. He headed the office of legislative liaison for the Department of Defense between 1948 and his retirement in 1949. He retired with the rank of Major general.

Persons was called back to active duty as a special assistant to General Dwight D. Eisenhower at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe from 1951–1952 and was active on behalf of Eisenhower’s presidential campaign in 1952. He became a deputy assistant to the president in 1953 and then was made an assistant to the president in 1958. He served throughout the Eisenhower presidency, handling congressional liaison before he replaced Sherman Adams in 1958 as, effectively, Eisenhower’s chief of staff.

Following the 1960 presidential election, Persons was heavily involved as Eisenhower’s representative in the transition of government between the Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy administrations. He met frequently with Clark Clifford, President-elect Kennedy’s transition representative, to work out the details for a smooth transfer of government.

Arthur “Art” Phillips served as the 32nd mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from 1973 to 1977. Prior to being elected to this post, he founded the Vancouver investment firm of Phillips, Hager & North. Phillips was instrumental in founding a reform-minded, centrist municipal-level political party, TEAM (The Electors’ Action Movement), in 1968. Also in that year, he was elected as an alderman to Vancouver City Council.

Under Phillips’ mayoral leadership, the city of Vancouver took a more cautious approach to real estate and related development and ensured that environmental and quality-of-life concerns were addressed by city planners.

Phillips was elected to the Parliament of Canada in 1979 as a Liberal, but was defeated the following year in his bid for re-election. After Phillips’ defeat, he returned to private life at his investment firm. By 2007, Phillips, Hager & North had become a leading investment firm on the west coast, with over $66 billion of assets under management.

Geoffrey R. Pyatt is the United States Ambassador to Ukraine. On May 19, 2016, he was nominated by U.S. President Barack Obama to serve as United States Ambassador to Greece.

Pyatt started his diplomatic career in Honduras, from 1990 until 1992 he worked as vice-consul and economic officer in Tegucigalpa. The highest position (before his current post) was deputy chief of diplomatic mission in India in 2006 and 2007. After that he worked as deputy chief of U.S. mission to International Atomic Energy Agency and other international organizations in Vienna. Prior to his current position Pyatt served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs from May 2010 until July 2013.

Pyatt took the Oath of Office of United States Ambassador to Ukraine on July 30, 2013 in the Harry S Truman Building of the US State Department in Washington, D.C.

Pyatt was confirmed as the Ambassador to Greece on July 14, 2016. Pyatt’s U.S. State Department career landed him posts in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Alexander Ramsey was elected from Pennsylvania as a Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the 28th and 29th congresses from March 4, 1843 to March 3, 1847. He served as the first Territorial Governor of Minnesota from June 1, 1849 to May 15, 1853 as a member of the Whig Party.

In 1855, he became the mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota. Ramsey was elected the second Governor of Minnesota after statehood and served from January 2, 1860 to July 10, 1863. Ramsey is credited with being the first Union governor to commit troops during the American Civil War. He happened to be in Washington, D.C. when fighting broke out. When he heard about the firing on Ft. Sumter he went straight to the White House and offered Minnesota’s services to Abraham Lincoln. He resigned the governorship to become a U.S. Senator, having been elected to that post in 1863 as a Republican. He was re-elected in 1869 and held the office until March 3, 1875, serving in the 38th, 39th, 40th, 41st, 42nd, and 43rd congresses.

Ramsey served as Secretary of War from 1879 to 1881, under President Rutherford B. Hayes.