The Ecuadorian statesman Galo Plaza Lasso (1906-1987) was his country's most modern-minded president, and he distinguished himself in the service of international organizations.

Galo Plaza Lasso was born on February 17, 1906, in New York, when his father, Gen. Leonidas Plaza Gutiérrez, a former president of Ecuador, was on his way to serve as Ecuadorian minister in Washington. Within a few years the family returned to Ecuador, where the elder Plaza came to occupy the presidency a second time (1912-1916). After completing his primary and secondary education in Quito, young Plaza went back to the United States and attended the universities of California (Berkeley) and of Maryland and Georgetown University.

Back in Ecuador in 1932, Plaza introduced modern techniques in the administration of the family estate, particularly in dairy farming, and his improvements were widely imitated. Soon he entered politics, helped by a personal background that included his father's...