NEW YORK — Walter Curley, a venture capitalist who was the US ambassador to Ireland and France and New York City’s official greeter under two mayors, died June 2 in Manhattan. He was 93.
The cause was a head injury he sustained in a fall, his son, Patrick, said.
Mr. Curley, who was prominent in Republican fund-raising circles, especially for the presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush, also wrote four books.
A Yale graduate, he was a classmate of Prescott Bush Jr., George’s brother, and of John V. Lindsay, who would be elected mayor of New York in 1965.
He was named ambassador to Ireland by President Ford (his senior thesis at Yale was titled “The Influence of the Irish on American Politics”) in 1975 and served until 1977. He then opened his own venture capital firm.
Mr. Curley was a prodigious fund-raiser for Bush, who appointed him ambassador to France (he spoke fluent Italian but said his French was only fair), where he served from 1989 to 1993.