Contributions by Californians in the Foreign Service

Raised in Los Angeles, Harrison Lewis entered the Foreign Service in 1930. After providing Washington with critical reporting on economic vulnerabilities in Nazi Germany during World War II, he rescued Stephen Thuransky, a naturalized American citizen, from Hungary’s communist authorities in a series of harrowing events. Read Lewis’ account of the Thuransky’s rescue and his full oral history on ADST’s website.

Bertha Potts was born and raised in Redwood City and joined the U.S. Information Agency in 1950. During her twenty-year career, she shared American culture and created people-to-people connections from Bangkok to Algiers. She served in Saigon during the First Indochina War and was sent to assist refugees fleeing the north after the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. Read her oral history is in ADST’s collection.

After growing up in Sacramento, William Milam joined the Foreign Service in 1962. As U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, he worked to address growing national security concerns surrounding the rise of the Taliban and the selling of nuclear secrets by Pakistani physicist A.Q. Khan. Milam also served as ambassador to Bangladesh. His full career is captured in ADST’s collection.

Born and raised in Fresno, Janice Bay entered the Foreign Service in 1967. As a consular officer in Germany, she helped Americans in trouble in East Berlin, including reuniting two American children with their grandmother at Checkpoint Charlie. She went on to specialize in economic affairs, fighting for fair trade practices and market access for American agricultural products. Read her full story on ADST’s website.

Born and raised in Pasadena, Chris Henze served in the Peace Corps in Cote d’Ivoire and then entered the U.S. Information Agency in 1967. During his career as a public diplomacy officer, he organized tours of eastern Europe for Apollo 14 and 15 astronauts, helping to tell the story of American leadership in space, and coordinated press coverage of the 1985 Reagan-Gorbachev summit. Read his full memoir on ADST’s website.

Ron Neumann was raised in Los Angeles and entered the Foreign Service in 1970 after serving as an infantry lieutenant in the Vietnam War. Addressing conflict and insurgencies would be a constant theme in his career during tours across the Middle East and while serving as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Bahrain, and Algeria. After retirement he became the president of the American Academy of Diplomacy. Read his full story in ADST’s collection.

Frank Young grew up in Modesto and worked in California’s wine industry before joining the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1976. As a program officer in Dhaka, he oversaw disaster relief efforts after a devastating cyclone stuck Bangladesh in 1991, making use of U.S. military resources deployed for the Persian Gulf War. Read more about Operation Sea Angel and find Young’s full oral history on ADST’s website.

Born in Berkley, Rodger Davies served in the U.S. Army in World War II before launching his Foreign Service career. Two months after he was appointed Ambassador to Cyprus, Davies was killed by sniper fire during the August 1974 attack on the U.S. Embassy by Greek-Cypriot protestors. For details, see Political Officer James Williams’ account.

A California native, Victoria DeLong served in the U.S. Navy before her Foreign Service career took her around the world. As cultural affairs officer in Haiti, she worked to expand educational exchanges and volunteered at an orphanage. On January 12, 2010, DeLong died in an earthquake that devastated Haiti. Read an ADST account of the earthquake’s aftermath.

J. Christopher Stevens was born in Grass Valley and served in the Peace Corps before joining the Foreign Service. He was named U.S. Ambassador to Libya after helping to unite opposition factions into a democratic government following the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi. Stevens and three other Americans were killed on September 11, 2012, when militants attacked the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi. Learn more in testimony by Gregory Hicks, Deputy Chief of Mission in Tripoli, in ADST’s collection.