Contributions by Massachusettsans in the Foreign Service

People born, raised, or educated in Massachusetts have made important contributions to America’s prosperity and security as members of the Foreign Service community. Here are some examples from ADST’s oral history collection:

Kingsley W. Hamilton studied at the Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy in Cambridge and joined the Foreign Service in 1937. After being interned by the Japanese Army in Vietnam during World War II, he returned to Washington and worked on development of President Truman’s “Point Four Program,” which extended U.S. technical assistance to the developing world. It was America’s first global foreign aid program, designed to counter the spread of communism in the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union. Find his full story in ADST’s collection.
Eric Chetwynd was born in Massachusetts, educated at Northeastern University, and joined the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1962. After helping to stabilize an Indonesian economy with 2000% annual inflation, he created a decentralizing program for Polish cities, helping to solidify economic and democratic transformation in Eastern Europe. Read his oral history on ADST’s website.
After graduate studies at Tufts University, Jill A. Schuker worked across the foreign affairs community from special assistant for national security affairs at the White House to counselor for public affairs at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. During her time as deputy spokesperson at the State Department in the late 1970s, she helped provide updates to American and global media on the Iran hostage crisis and the Jonestown massacre. Read the rest of her story in ADST’s collection.
James Franklin Jeffrey was born in Melrose, raised in Saugus, and educated at Boston and Northeastern Universities. After serving as an infantry officer in Vietnam, he joined the Foreign Service in 1977. As a young consular officer in 1981, Jeffrey served as the U.S. intermediary with Turkish hijackers holding 91 hostages–including five American Citibank executives–at an airport in Bulgaria, keeping the hijackers talking until a dramatic hostage rescue. He went on to ambassadorships in Albania, Turkey, and Iraq. Read his full interview on the ADST website.
Born in East Freetown, James P. Callahan entered the Foreign Service in 1978. After serving in consular positions across Latin America and Europe, he joined the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, where he oversaw establishment of an international law enforcement academy for Africa in Botswana. His full oral history is in ADST’s collection.