Robert Fred Ellsworth (June 11, 1926 – May 9, 2011)[1] was an American legislator and diplomat. He served as the United States Permanent Representative to NATO (an ambassadorial-level appointment) between 1969 and 1971.[2] He had previously served three terms as a Republican Member of Congress from Kansas, from 1961 to 1967, and as an Assistant to the President during the presidency of Richard Nixon; under President Gerald Ford, he was Deputy Secretary of Defense.[1] Ellsworth also served as assistant to the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission.[3]
The retired ambassador was admitted to the Order of Saint John as a knight of honor in 1995.[4]
On November 9, 2010, Ellsworth provided commentary to KFMB regarding an unexplained vapor trail in the airspace off the coast of Los Angeles which, at the time, was widely speculated to be a missile launch.[5] He cautioned the news crew to wait for definitive answers from the military, then went on to theorize: "It could be a test firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submarine, an underwater submarine, to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we could do that."[5]
Ellsworth died in Encinitas, California: near the small city of Solana Beach, where he had founded and directed a research firm, Hamilton BioVentures.[6]
