Frederick S. Wyle is an attorney, trustee in bankruptcy and receiver. Since 1974 he has acted as Chapter 11 trustee in bankruptcy primarily in cases involving substantial litigation (Saturday Review, Inc; Pacific Far East Lines; Hamilton Taft & Co., including recoveries of $47.5 million against Lloyds of London and $17.5 million against Peet Marwick; Garden City Inc.), or as receiver or trustee in cases brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the California Corporations Commissioner, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, or the US Department of Justice. These assignments included functioning as chief executive in enterprises with sizeable work forces (The Bicycle Club, 1600; Garden City Inc., 600) and operating budgets ($30 million to $80 million annually) for periods of up to seven years. Mr. Wyle has also acted as liquidating trustee (including Synthetics Industries PL, a distribution of $184 million over eight years). The total administered in a fiduciary capacity through 2007, including business operations, recoveries through litigation, and distributions, is in excess of $900 million. See Cases as Trustee or Receiver
Mr. Wyle also has substantial experience in international negotiation, both while in the US Government (relating to the balance of payments for costs arising from US troops stationed in Europe, and other policy matters in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe) (see Citation below), and in the private sector as counsel and representative of the Federated States of Micronesia in the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and in the negotiation between the Federated States of Micronesia government and the US for the future status of Micronesia (as a Freely Associated State), and during 2003 as a negotiator for Governor Davis of California with Indian tribes seeking Compacts for gambling operations. See C.V.
Mr. Wyle started his legal career upon graduation from the Harvard Law School, as Teaching Fellow there, then as law clerk to a US District Judge in San Francisco, followed by a year in the litigation department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison in NY (where his first client was Marilyn Monroe, followed by a defense of Arthur Miller against a House Un-American Activities Committee prosecution for contempt), and four years as principal plaintiff’s counsel in the Miller and Lux litigation in San Francisco involving 34 law firms representing defendants. See C.V.
Host Harry Kreisler, Executive Director of the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley, welcomes attorney Frederick S. Wyle, a Pentagon official in the Kennedy administration, for a discussion of nuclear weapons policy in Europe during the Cold War.
for meritorious service to the Department of Defense as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning from April, 1966 to May, 1967, and for European and NATO Affairs from June, 1966 to April, 1969. Mr. Wyle’s rare combination of great intellect, imagination and loyalty enabled him to make a unique contribution to the development and execution of the policies of the Secretary of Defense and the United States Government. With high determination, he sought always to identify the fundamental national interests of the United States, and to advance these interests with skill and resolution. He had an enormous capacity to absorb details, and to comprehend the most complex problems. At the same time, he could range over broad issues with a felicity that always stimulated his listeners. Mr. Wyle played a pivotal role in the establishment of NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group of Defense Ministers. The success of this experiment in managing the nuclear affairs of the Alliance is due in large measure to his creativity and untiring effort. Mr. Wyle’s initiative and perception influenced national policies relating to NATO strategy, US troop deployments in Europe, and balance of payments arrangements. To these and many other difficult problems, he applied himself with perception and diligence. Mr. Wyle’s achievements will have a positive and lasting effect upon the national security and foreign policies of the United States. It is with great pleasure that I award to him the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Medal.
(signed) Melvin R. Laird
United States Secretary of Defense
April 17, 1969