Contributions by Montanans in the Foreign Service

Aldene Alice Barrington grew up on a rural Montana homestead near Glacier National Park and began working for what would much later become the Foreign Commercial Service in 1927, quickly becoming a Latin American specialist. As Assistant Trade Commissioner in Rio de Janeiro at the outbreak of World War II, she made important connections between local and American businesses to promote U.S. exports and ensure trade in critical materials. Learn more in her ADST oral history.

Born and raised in western Montana, Halvor C. Ekern graduated from the University of Montana, served in the U.S. Army in World War II, and joined the Foreign Service in 1958. At the height of the Cold War, he served as political advisor to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Army Europe, in Heidelberg. He kept the commander apprised of political developments and helped foster positive relations with local German officials while under the ever present threat of conflict with the Soviet Union. Find out more in his full oral history.

Born and raised in Anaconda, Patrick Morris served in the U.S. Army in WWII and survived five months as a prisoner of war. In 1951, he began work in Peru for the Institute for Inter-American Affairs, one of the antecedents of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Stationed in La Paz during Che Guevara’s 1967 attempt to spark a Marxist revolution, he helped explain Bolivia’s military capabilities to the U.S. Ambassador in neighboring Argentina so he could calm nerves and avoid an overreaction from Buenos Aires. Read more about Morris is his ADST oral history.

James B. Engle was born in Billings and started his Foreign Service career in 1941. Under the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, Engle was sent to Nha Trang in Vietnam as Consul General. He oversaw the phase-out of the U.S. military presence, recovering American property or systematically turning it over to Vietnamese authorities to avoid equipment falling into the black market. Engle was later Ambassador to Benin. Learn more in his oral history.

A Bozeman native, Archie M. Bolster joined the Foreign Service in 1958 after serving in the Navy. As Deputy Chief of the U.S. Embassy’s political section in Tehran in the mid-1970s, he and his team reported on mounting frustrations against the Shah and the growing influence of Ayatollah Khomeini. Find out more details about Bolster’s career in his ADST oral history.

Born into a Foreign Service family, Christopher Phillips studied at Montana State University in Bozeman and worked on a nearby ranch before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II and serving on General MacArthur’s staff during the occupation of Japan. He became Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Organizations in the State Department in 1953, where he helped negotiate creation of what would become the United Nations Development Program and deployment of the first ever UN peacekeeping forces. He later served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and as Ambassador to Brunei. Read the rest of his story in ADST’s collection.

Born in Mile City, Douglas A. Hartwick grew up in a Foreign Service family and joined himself in 1977 as an economic officer. He had just finished serving as U.S. Ambassador to Laos when the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck and he was named Senior Coordinator for Tsunami Reconstruction. Working with Presidents Bush and Clinton and the governments of afflicted nations, Hartwick was responsible for coordinating recovery efforts and obtaining support from several international organizations. Learn more about him in his ADST oral history.

John Patrick Egan came from Perma in the mountains of western Montana and served as a U.S. consular agent to Cordoba, Argentina. He was kidnapped by the Montoneros, a leftist terrorist group which demanded the release of four political prisoners in exchange for the diplomat’s safety. The prisoners were already dead, however, and the militants executed Egan on February 28, 1975. His body was found wrapped in the Montoneros flag.