Who is William Averell Harriman and what is his importance in the nonfiction book, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made: Acheson, Bohlen,…?

William Averell Harriman was the son of railway tycoon Edward Henry Harriman who had migrated to America from London. His mother was Mary Averell Harriman. He was born on November 15, 1891. He had a sister named Mary and a brother named Roland. Averell was active in many sports and was always very competitive. Born into immense wealth, he was always taught that money should work for the good of society. He grew up in New York City with time spent at Arden, the family estate on the Hudson, located near West Point. He was educated at the exclusive Groton prep school and then Yale. He coached the crew team and became a member of Skull and Bones. Harriman formed his own shipping line and merchant bank after school. He entered government as part of the New Deal and became a special envoy to Churchill and Stalin for President Roosevelt. He had made his first trip to Russia as a child in 1899 when it was still ruled by the tsar. He spent a lot of time negotiating various issues with Stalin and negotiated his own private mineral concession issues with Trotsky. He was also involved in negotiating a limited test-ban treaty with Khrushchev. He married Kitty Lanier Lawrence in 1915 and had two daughters, Mary and Kathleen. He began doing business with the Russians in 1922. Divorced from Kitty in 1929, he married Marie Norton Whitney in 1930. In 1973, Pamela Churchill became his third wife. During his years in Moscow, his daughter Kathleen acted as his hostess. He held many positions during his years in government and was selected as United States Special Representative to Europe to administer the Marshall Plan. He always had the capacity to change and adapt to situations. He died in July 1986.