{{Short description|American shipping executive and special ambassador for trade}} {{Use American English|date=March 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2026}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = William Roth |image = Portrait de William M. Roth.jpg |caption = Portrait of William Roth |office = 2nd United States Trade Representative |president = Lyndon B. Johnson |term_start = March 24, 1967 |term_end = January 20, 1969 |predecessor = Christian Herter |successor = Carl J. Gilbert |birth_name = William Matson Roth |birth_date = {{birth date|1916|9|3}} |birth_place = {{nowrap|San Francisco, California, U.S.}} |death_date = {{death date and age|2014|5|29|1916|9|3}} |death_place = Petaluma, California, U.S. |party = Democratic |spouse = Joan Osborn |children = 3 }} '''William Matson Roth''' (September 3, 1916 – May 29, 2014) was an American shipping executive, special ambassador for trade, member of the ACLU executive committee, and Regent for the University of California.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/~ucalhist/general_history/overview/regents/biographies_r.html |title=University of California History Digital Archives |publisher=Sunsite.berkeley.edu |accessdate=2013-09-28 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002130533/http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/~ucalhist/general_history/overview/regents/biographies_r.html |archivedate=2013-10-02 }}</ref> He is credited with the preservation of Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco.
==Early life and family== He was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Lurline Matson Roth and William Philip Roth.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vo8vAAAAMAAJ&q=%22William+matson+roth%22+1916 |title=CQ Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report - Google Books |date=2007-03-31 |accessdate=2014-06-05}}</ref> His maternal grandfather was William Matson, the founder of the Matson Navigation Company. Roth attended and graduated from Yale University in 1939.<ref name=sfgate1/><ref>{{cite press release |url=http://aei.pitt.edu/74333/1/BIO_-_EN-MULTI_-_Roth.pdf#page=3 |title=Nomination of Ambassador William M. Roth of California |date=January 26, 1967 |publisher=Office of the White House Press Secretary |access-date=14 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/business/william-m-roth-shipping-heir-who-became-lifelong-public-servant-dies-at-97.html |title=William M. Roth, Shipping Heir Who Became Lifelong Public Servant, Dies at 97 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 16, 2014 |access-date=14 September 2021 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
Roth married Joan Osborn in 1946 and together they had three daughters (Anna, Margaret, Jessica). Osborn was the daughter of conservationist Henry Fairfield Osborn Jr.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1946/04/14/archives/miss-joan-osborn-w-m-roth-married-principals-in-wedding-and-a.html |title=Miss Joan Osborn, W.M. Roth married; principals in wedding and a bride-elect |date=April 14, 1946 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=14 September 2021}}</ref> Roth died on May 29, 2014, in Petaluma, California.<ref name="sfgate1"/>
One daughter, Maggie Roth, wife of artist David Best,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/04.15.99/dining-9915.html |title=A brief history of tea leads us strangely to Petaluma |author=Giles, Gretchen |date=April 15–21, 1999 |work=Sonoma County Independent |access-date=14 September 2021}}</ref> lives on what is now known as the Fairfield Osborn Preserve; it was purchased by the Roth family in the 1950s and subsequently donated to the Nature Conservancy.<ref>{{cite interview |url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/download_pdf_transcript/ajax?record_id=edanmdm-AAADCD_oh_274524 |title=Oral history interview with David Best, 2007 October 23-December 6 |subject=David Best |interviewer=Mija Riedel |publisher=Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution |access-date=14 September 2021}}</ref>{{rp|68}} Maggie and David have two children together. David has two children from a previous marriage.
==Career== In 1962, Roth and his mother purchased Ghirardelli Square in fear that it would be torn down and replaced with condominiums.<ref>Burt A. Folkart, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-09-06-mn-23668-story.html Matson Line Heiress Roth Dies After 95th Birthday : Philanthropist Lurline Roth Dies at Age 95], ''The Los Angeles Times'', September 06, 1985</ref> They hired a landscape architectural firm to convert the factory with its historic brick structure into a retail complex. It was considered to be the first major adaptive re-use project in the United States. Ghirardelli Square was later listed on the National Register of Historical Places to preserve for future generations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historysmc.org/main.php?page=hmroth |title=San Mateo County History Museum, The Roth Family |publisher=Historysmc.org |date= |accessdate=2013-09-28}}</ref>
In 1966, he was targeted along with Clark Kerr and Elinor Raas Heller by a fellow Regent, Edwin Pauley, for his alleged "ultra-liberal" views.<ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2002/06/09/MNCF2.DTL ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060514224035/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fchronicle%2Farchive%2F2002%2F06%2F09%2FMNCF2.DTL |date=May 14, 2006 }}</ref> Ronald Reagan made the Free Speech Movement and Opposition to the Vietnam War on the Berkeley campus one of his major campaign issues.
At the first Regents' meeting after Reagan's election, Kerr was fired, with all the governor's new appointees voting for termination.<ref>{{cite web|author=Seth Rosenfeld |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/06/09/MNCF3.DTL |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020808071652/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/06/09/MNCF3.DTL |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 8, 2002 |title=The governor's race |publisher=SFGate |date=2002-06-09 |accessdate=2013-09-28}}</ref> Roth remained a member of the Regents' Board for many years, and was deliberately late for Reagan's last meeting in 1974, to avoid voting on a resolution of approval for the outgoing governor.<ref name="sfgate1">{{cite web|author=John King |url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/William-Matson-Roth-prominent-Bay-Area-5517937.php |title=William Matson Roth, prominent Bay Area businessman, dies |publisher=SFGate |date=2014-05-30 |accessdate=2014-06-05}}</ref>
President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to be the Trade Representative, following the death of Christian A. Herter the previous year.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/history/list-past-ustrs |title=Office of the United States Trade Representative - List of Past USTRS |publisher=Ustr.gov |date= |accessdate=2013-09-28}}</ref>
Among other activities, Roth worked as special representative for trade on US-European trade talks (named the Kennedy Round negotiations). See photo of Roth at a 1967, U.S. Chamber of Commerce conference alongside US Secretary of Commerce Alexander B. Trowbridge; Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman, and Under Secretary of Labor James J. Reynolds.
In 1974, Roth, a long-time contributor to the Democratic Party, ran for Governor of California in the Democratic Primary election. He placed fourth (receiving 10% of the vote) in a crowded field of candidates that included San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto, Speaker of the Assembly Bob Moretti, Congressman Jerome Waldie, and the winner, Secretary of State Jerry Brown, who had the advantage of name recognition, his father Pat Brown having been Governor eight years before.
Roth had a summer home on Sonoma Mountain with substantial area, having purchased the holding around 1950; the Roth family gave this property to the Nature Conservancy, who transformed it into a nature preserve, presently known as the Fairfield Osborn Preserve.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=Christian Herter}} {{s-ttl|title=United States Trade Representative|years=1967–1969}} {{s-aft|after=Carl Gilbert}} {{s-end}}
{{USTR}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roth, William M.}} Category:1916 births Category:2014 deaths Category:American conservationists Category:American businesspeople in transportation Category:University of California regents Category:United States trade representatives