Baron Roy Andries de Groot, was a British-born American culinary writer and wine critic. He was born in London, the son of a Dutch artist and a French noblewoman. He was educated at St Paul's School and at Oxford University. During the 1930s, de Groot worked as a news and feature writer, film writer, and director. When World War II broke out, he joined the British Ministry of Information and worked for the BBC, where, during The Blitz of London, he suffered eye injuries that would leave him totally blind within 20 years. De Groot emigrated to the United States in 1941 and worked for the U.S. State Department. According to his obituary in the New York Times, de Groot gave up his Dutch title in 1945, when he became an American citizen. In 1948, he married the British actress Katherine Hynes and they lived in a house on Bleecker Street in New York's Greenwich Village with his seeing-eye dog companion, Atena. Of their three daughters, the youngest was given up for adoption, while the two elder daughters, Fiona and Christina, lived with their parents. As his vision failed, he switched careers in the 1960s and took up food writing, something he could do with his remaining senses. 

February 21st, 1910 in   /  Died:   Sep 16th, 1983