William Stoltzfus

William A. Stoltzfus, Jr. (born November 3, 1924) was a United States Foreign Service Officer and diplomat.

Early life

Stoltzfus was born in Beirut in 1924. His father was a Mennonite from Ohio and his mother a Presbyterian from Minneapolis. Stoltzfus' father was principal of a boys' school in Aleppo, Syria, and later president of the Beirut College for Women. Stoltzfus was tutored in Aleppo before going to the American Community School in Beirut and learned to speak Arabic and French at an early age. At fifteen, he returned to the United States to attend Deerfield Academy and, later, Princeton University.

In 1943 Stoltzfus left Princeton to become a pilot in the United States Naval Air Corps. He returned to Princeton at the end of the war and attended the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs. After his graduation in 1949, Stoltzfus failed his first attempt at the Foreign Service exam; his childhood abroad left him without a strong knowledge of U.S. geography.[1]

Diplomatic career

Stoltzfus' first post was in Alexandria, Egypt, where he worked as an economic officer and reported on the production of flax and other natural resources. After doing economic reporting in Benghazi, Libya, Stoltzfus was assigned to Kuwait, where he did consular work with Palestinian refugees applying for visas to the United States. He then did political reporting in Jidda, Damascus, and Aden before being assigned as Ambassador to Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain in 1972. In 1974, he would return to Kuwait, his first posting, as the new ambassador. In 1976 Stoltzfus retired from the foreign service and went into banking.[1]

Service Chronology

William Stoltzfus' Diplomatic Chronology
Position Host country or organization Year
US Foreign Service Alexandria, Egypt 1950 to 1952
US Foreign Service Benghazi, Libya 1952 to 1954
US Foreign Service Kuwait City, Kuwait 1954 to 1956
US Foreign Service Damascus, Syria 1956 to 1957
US Foreign Service Jidda, Saudi Arabia 1957 to 1959
US Foreign Service Aden, Yemen 1959 to 1961
US Foreign Service Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 1966 to 1968
U.S. Ambassador Muscat, Oman (concurrent accreditation to Bahrain and Qatar) 1972 to 1974
U.S. Ambassador Kuwait City, Kuwait 1974 to 1976

References

External links

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