Contributions by Michiganders in the Foreign Service

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

Born in Northville, Michigan, Don Carroll Bliss, Jr. joined the Foreign Service after World War I and served as a Commercial Attaché from Asia to Europe in the 1920s and 30s. After braving earthquakes in Japan, he participated in a thousand-mile car ride across India, bringing acclaim to American-made automobiles and sending Bliss to his bed with a case of malaria. He served as Ambassador to Ethiopia from 1957 to 1960. Read his memoir here.
Raised on a farm outside Grand Rapids, Stephen Bosworth joined the Foreign Service in 1961. After tours across Latin America and Europe, he began to focus on energy policy and became the first head of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, an early attempt to limit North Korea’s nuclear program. Bosworth would serve as Ambassador to Tunisia, the Philippines, and South Korea. His oral history can be found here.
Born in Ann Arbor, Patrick N. Theros joined the Foreign Service in 1963. In Nicaragua, his ambassador sent him to monitor a 1967 political rally that turned violent. As government forces began shooting, Theros risked his life to intervene and stop their attack on a Managua hotel full of American citizens. As Ambassador to Qatar, he began the process that built an extensive U.S. university presence outside Doha. Read his full oral history here.
Born and raised in Saginaw, Edward L. Lee served as a U.S. Marine in combat in Vietnam. After serving as a Marine Security Guard at our embassies in Saigon and in Bangkok, he became a special agent in 1971 with what would become the Diplomatic Security Service. Lee specialized in combating visa and passport fraud and helped create the first training program for Regional Security Officers responsible for U.S. Embassy security. His oral history is in ADST’s collection.
The Foreign Service took Arlene Render from public health studies at the University of Michigan to three ambassadorships and a lifetime of diplomatic achievements. After joining the State Department as one of the few Black officers in 1970, she went on to resolve a messy espionage affair in Ghana and oversee the safe evacuation of American citizens from Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. Render served as Ambassador to the Gambia, Zambia, and Cote d’Ivoire. Read her full oral history in ADST’s collection.
Born and raised in Grand Rapids, Marc Baas was accepted into the Foreign Service in 1970. In a career as an economic officer dominated by service in Africa, Baas helped secure a contract for General Electric to sell train engines to the government of Gabon, contributed to the creation of the U.S. General System of Preferences to promote trade with developing countries, and negotiated auto industry agreements in Japan. He went on to serve as Ambassador in Ethiopia. Read his full oral history here.
Penelope “Penne” Laingen grew up in Ann Arbor and represented America beside her husband L. Bruce Laingen on his Foreign Service tours from Afghanistan to Malta. When Bruce and 51 colleagues were taken hostage by radical Iranian students in 1979, she launched the nationwide “Yellow Ribbon” movement to show solidarity with the hostages and their families. Read her hostage crisis story in ADST’s collection of “Moments in U.S. Diplomatic History.”
Born in Detroit, John M. Jones joined the Foreign Service in 1981. After experiences ranging from helping protect the legal rights of American citizens arrested in Belgium to helping Amerasian refugees from Vietnam reach the United States, Jones became one of the first Foreign Service Officers assigned to lead a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq in 2006. His Forward Operating Base was attacked by a suicide bomber in a dump truck loaded with chlorine gas canisters, leaving Jones with blood clots in his lungs. As a Black man, Jones confronted racism and hardship throughout his career. He served as Ambassador to Guyana from 2008 to 2009. Read his oral history here.