Chavchavadze was born in London to Prince Paul Chavchavadze and Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia , a descendant of a prominent Georgian noble family and the Imperial Russian dynasty. His father, Prince Paul, was a fiction writer and translator of writings from Georgian into English, and an émigré in the United Kingdom, and then the United States. Chavchavadze entered the United States Army in 1943 and served during World War II as liaison for the U.S. Army Air ForceLend-Lease supply operations to the Soviet Union. After the war, he entered Yale University where he was a member of The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, the second longest running a cappella group in the United States. He spent more than two decades of his career as a CIA officer in the Soviet Union Division. After his retirement, Chavchavadze specialized in tracing the nobility of Imperial Russia and authored The Grand Dukes. He also published Crowns and Trenchcoats: A Russian Prince in the CIA based on his CIA experiences, and translated from Russian Stronger Than Power: A Collection of Stories by Sandji B. Balykov, an emigre Kalmyk writer. Additionally, he lectured part-time at Georgetown, The George Washington and George Mason Universities on Russian history and culture. As a grandchild of a Russian Grand Duke, he was an Associate Member of the Romanov Family Association. Via his mother, Chavchavadze is great-great-grandson and simultaneously great-great-great-grandson of Nicholas I. David Chavchavadze died in his sleep on October 5, 2014, aged 90, after a long illness.
Marriages and children
He married Helen Husted on 13 September 1952 and they were divorced in 1959. They have two daughters and three grandchildren:
Princess Maria Chavchavadze married Alexander Rasic on 27 October 1990 and they were divorced. They have one daughter:
*Yelena Rasic
Princess Alexandra Chavchavadze married Puthukuty Krishnan Ramani on 26 November 1988. They have two children:
*Alexander Chavchavadze Ramani-Poduval
*Caroline Chavchavadze Ramani-Poduval
He remarried Judith Clippinger on 28 December 1959 and they were divorced in 1970. They have two children and three grandchildren
Princess Catherine Chavchavadze married John Alan Redpath on 22 September 1990. They have two daughters:
*Sophia Redpath
*Nina Nolan Redpath
Prince Michael Chavchavadze married Colleen Quinn in 2011. They have one son:
*Prince David Chavchavadze
He remarried, again, Euginie de Smitt in 1979. They have one step-son, Paul George Olkhovsky
