Contributions by Missourians in the Foreign Service

Born on a farm outside New Bloomfield and raised in Jefferson City, Charles C. Christian joined the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1961. He ensured the efficiency of American assistance initiatives in Indonesia and Afghanistan and oversaw U.S. agricultural exports to the Philippines under the Food for Peace program. His full oral history is available on ADST’s website.

American actress Kathleen Turner was born in Springfield but grew up in a Foreign Service family in the 1950s and 60s. She attended school in Canada, Cuba, Venezuela and the United Kingdom, and recounts in her oral history how her father saved embassy employees in Havana during the Cuban revolution.

Born in Springfield and raised in rural Missouri, Gary L. Matthews entered the Foreign Service in 1961 after a stint in the Army. As Ambassador to Malta, he was involved in negotiations surrounding the 1985 hijacking of EgyptAir Flight 648 when it was forced to land in Malta. Matthews convinced Maltese authorities to not allow Palestinian hijackers to refuel the plane and take off. The lone surviving hijacker was eventually convicted to life in prison in the United States. Read more of Matthews’ story in ADST’s collection.

Born and raised in Kansas City, Richard L. Stockman joined the Foreign Service in 1963. In his more than 30 year career as a diplomatic communications specialist, he helped embassy communications evolve from telegraphs and mimeograph machines to computers and satellite connections and laid out the communications infrastructure for new embassies, including in Saudi Arabia and Georgia. Learn more about his time in Saudi Arabia, as well as other countries in nearly every continent here.

Arnold Schifferdecker was born and raised in Norborne and entered the Foreign Service in 1964. As a young staff aide to the ambassador in Tel Aviv, he delivered the American demand for compensation to the Israeli government for damages and casualties aboard an American communications ship, the USS Liberty, struck during the Six Day War in 1967. Read more about Schifferdecker in his complete oral history in ADST’s collection.

Susan Clyde was raised on a farm outside of Malta Bend and entered the Foreign Service as a member of the U.S. Information Agency in 1967. As a young cultural affairs officer in Madagascar, she ran an English teaching program that promoted American culture and values. Her work included showing movies on U.S. space exploration in remote villages and organizing a visit for the Apollo 12 astronauts. You can read her account of her diplomatic career on ADST’s website.

Born and raised in Kansas City, Mildred Patterson entered the Foreign Service in 1976. She worked in the State Department’s Operations Center during the Iran hostage crisis, including taking the call from the Canadian Foreign Minister to advise the Secretary of State that six U.S. Embassy personnel in hiding with the Canadian ambassador in Tehran had successfully left Iran. Read her full account in ADST’s collection.

Thomas W. Ragsdale was born in Shelbina and served as a civilian agricultural specialist with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Vietnam. He was captured by Communist forces in 1967 during the Tet Offensive and died during imprisonment.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Richard A. Schenk joined USAID in 1966. He was killed by a landmine near Du’c Pho, Vietnam, on March 2, 1968.

Raised in Moberly and a graduate of the University of Missouri, Cleo Noel Jr. served in the Navy in World War II before joining the Foreign Service. As deputy chief of mission in Sudan in 1967, he oversaw the evacuation of Americans during the Six-Day War. He returned to Khartoum in 1972 as Ambassador. On March 1, 1973, the 54-year-old Noel and his deputy George Moore were kidnapped and executed by the terrorist group Black September.

Kenneth R. Hobson II lived in Nevada, Missouri, and was a staff sergeant in the Defense Attaché Office of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. On August 7, 1998, he and 212 others were killed in Al Qaeda’s bombing of the embassy.