Contributions by Rhode Islanders in the Foreign Service
People born, raised, or educated in Rhode Island 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:
- Born in Newport, Frances Knight ran the U.S. passport office from 1955 to 1977. She expanded passport services for Americans, opening offices across the country, and oversaw a six-fold increase in passport production. Read the rest of her story in ADST’s collection.
- Walter B. Smith, II was born and raised in Providence and entered the Foreign Service in 1958. While assigned to the National War College in 1984, he developed the diplomatic plan for the withdrawal of U.S. Marines from the multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon, bringing an end to a casualty-filled mission while maintaining relationships in the volatile region. Find out more in his ADST oral history.
- Jim Meenan was born in Rhode Island and joined the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1965. Assigned to Saigon at age 23, Meenan was assigned to manage all of USAID’s local currency in Vietnam – well over one billion dollars – that he helped direct to local economic development projects to counter Viet Cong influence. Read his full story in ADST’s collection.
- Raised in Providence, Peter Bloom joined the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1967. He was posted to Nigeria just as war broke out in Biafra, and he spent his first weeks on the job helping evacuate American citizens and U.S. government employees from eastern Nigeria. Bloom went on to serve as USAID Mission Director in Sri Lanka, where he promoted agricultural development amid fighting with the Tamil Tigers. Read his full oral history in ADST’s collection.
- Born in Providence, raised in Mohegan, and educated at the University of Rhode Island, Edmund McWilliams served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and joined the Foreign Service in 1975. As Acting Deputy Chief of Mission in Kabul during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, he collected intelligence on theeffectiveness of U.S.-provided Stinger missiles, relying on eyewitness accounts from traveling rug merchants, and advised Washington on changes in Soviet military equipment and tactics. Read more about his experience in his ADST oral history.
- Franklin Pierce “Pancho” Huddle, Jr. was born in Providence and educated at Brown University, and entered the Foreign Service in 1975. In his first State Department assignment as a political analyst for Iran, he warned of the impending fall of the Shah. As Principal Officer for the southern Philippines in Cebu, he called attention to rightwing assassinations of clergy, including some American citizens. Huddle went on to serve as Ambassador to Tajikistan. Read more about his journey in his ADST oral history.
ADST also remembers those Rhode Islanders in the Foreign Affairs community who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to America. Here are two recorded on the American Foreign Service Association’s Memorial Plaque:
- Born in Woonsocket, Nicole Boucher joined the State Department as a Foreign Service secretary in 1960 and was posted to the U.S. Embassy in Yaoundé, Cameroon. She boarded an Air Afrique airliner on May 10, 1963, to return home after completing her first assignment, and died when it crashed on Mount Cameroon.
- Dwight Hall Owen, Jr., was born in Providence, Rhode Island and worked as a freelance newspaper correspondent before joining the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1965 at the age of 19. While doing development work in Vietnam, Owen was shot by communist forces and died from his wounds on August 30, 1967.