Edward Stettinius was born in Chicago on 22nd October 1900. He was a student at the University of Virginia before starting work with the General Motors Corporation in 1924.

In 1934 Stettinius joined the US Steel Corporation where he became chairman of the board. In May 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited Stettinius to become the head of the new National Defense Advisory Commission.

After serving in the Office of Production Management he was appointed Lend-Lease administrator in January 1941. Appointed under secretary of state in October 1943 he replaced his boss, Cordell Hull, in December 1944.

Stettinius went with Franklin D. Roosevelt to Yalta and was a delegate to the UN Conference at San Francisco in June 1945. Edward Stettinius, who also served as US representative to the United Nations, died in in 1949.