J. Owen Zurhellen Jr.

Joseph Owen Zurhellen Jr. (July 8, 1920 New York City – November 5, 1990) was an American Career Foreign Service Officer who was the first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Suriname (1976-1978) when it gained independence in 1975. He had been the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs, Deputy Chief of Mission Israel, Foreign Service Officer, Professor at Manhattanville College; Arms Control Negotiator; and deputy director at the U.N.

He graduated from Columbia University in 1943, and after serving in the Marines, he entered the Foreign Service in 1946. He taught political science at the Manhattanville College after retiring from the Foreign Service in 1978. Zurhellen, a resident of Putnam Valley, New York, died of cancer at Montefiore Hospital in The Bronx.