- William
Insco Buchanan
was
Director General of
the Pan American
Exposition, credited with the Pan-Am's construction,
operation, and
dismantling..
When Buffalo leaders, led by John G. Milburn, planned an
exposition with a
Latin American theme, they needed someone who knew the
South American countrieswell, as well as the temperament
of its citizens. That someone was Buchanan,
known as the "Diplomat of the Americas." He served as
PresidentsMcKinley and Teddy Roosevelt's chief
troubleshooter during fifteen years in
over ten cases of diplomatic disputes among the South
American countries,especially Argentina and Chile.
His further qualifications for overseeing the Pan
Am
Expo of 1901 included organizing a theater, an opera
house, and the
Sioux City, Iowa, corn palace expositions of 1882. This
led to his appointmentas overseer of the World's Colombian
exposition of 1893.
For six years he resumed his diplomatic career, but just
as the establishment
of Panama was his chief diplomatic victory, so was his
direction of the BuffaloPan American Exposition his
greatest directorial success.
Born in rural Ohio, Buchanan followed lucrative business
opportunities,
settling finally in the turn-of-the-century prosperous
Buffalo, which heconsidered home. He married the former
Lulu Williams.
He lived his last years on Gates Circle, only a block from
his burial site in Forest
Lawn. Mr. Buchanan died suddenly while on business
in London on October 16,
1909. He is buried with his son, Donald I. Buchanan. his
grave site is inSection H, Lot 29.
--
Source: "Buchanan, Director of Pan
American Exposition, is Forest lawn Tenant," by Marius
Risley. Pub. in theWinter 2000 edition of Forest Lawn
Cemetery newsletter, "The Gate."
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