High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert Fred Ellsworth (June 11, 1926 – May 9, 2011) was a United States` legislator and diplomat. He served as the United States Permanent Representative to NATO (an ambassadorial level appointment) between 1969 and 1971. He had previously served three terms as a Republican Member of Congress from Kansas, from 1961 to 1967, and as an Assistant to the President during the presidency of Richard Nixon; under President Gerald Ford, he was Deputy Secretary of Defense. Ellsworth also served as assistant to the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission.