Contributions by Wisconsinites in the Foreign Service

John J. Helble was born and raised in Wisconsin before joining the Foreign Service in 1956. As a special assistant in 1975, he set up the Operations Center task force that served as the lifeline for evacuation operations out of Saigon. He would later play a role in evacuating American citizens from Cambodia and Bangladesh. His full story is in ADST’s collection.

Jean Mary Wilkowski, born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, went from helping sailors get medical treatment as a vice consul in Trinidad and Tobago in 1945 to becoming the first woman appointed to head a U.S. Embassy in Africa in 1972. As Ambassador to Zambia, she initiated assistance to farmers to build Zambian agricultural self-sufficiency. Read her oral history here.

Born in Madison and inspired by his education at the University of Wisconsin and his U.S. Navy service in the Pacific during World War II, John R. Burke entered the Foreign Service in 1956. In 1977, he was appointed ambassador to Guyana where cult leader Jim Jones was leading the Peoples Temple, comprising about 1,000 Americans. When the cult murdered several visiting Americans, including a U.S. Congressman, Burke coordinated a mission to rescue survivors and directed the collection of evidence. After the Jonestown massacre, Burke arranged repatriation of the remains of hundreds of dead Americans. Read his oral history in ADST’s collection.

Born in Fond du Lac, John H. Kelly joined the Service in 1964. As Ambassador to war-torn Lebanon in the late 1980s, he worked to find and rescue American hostages. During the civil war, Kelly also provided aid to Lebanese civilians and tried to broker a peace deal. Read the rest of his story here.

Kenneth M. Quinn spent formative childhood years in LaCrosse and joined the Foreign Service in 1968, beginning his career as a rural development advisor in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. He took part in more than one hundred hours of helicopter combat operations over six years in Vietnam, earning the U.S. Army Air Medal, and saved the life of a young Vietnamese boy shot in the stomach. He would later serve as President Ford’s interpreter during meetings with the South Vietnamese as Saigon was falling, and eventually go on to become Ambassador to Cambodia. Read his account in ADST’s collection.

Betty Jane Jones was born and raised in Milwaukee and spent more than three decades in the Foreign Service. Beginning an assignment to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in 1978, Jones worked on the opening of diplomatic relations with China and on efforts to resolve conflict in Lebanon and Cambodia. Her story on ADST’s website.

Born in Milwaukee and raised in Stevens Point, Lawrence Eagleburger joined the State Department in 1957. After serving as Ambassador to Yugoslavia and leadership positions in the State Department, he rose to become the only career Foreign Service Officer to serve as Secretary of State. Read his story in ADST’s collection.

William Edward Nordeen was born in Amery and was a member of the U.S. Defense and Naval Attaché Office at the U.S. Embassy in Greece. On June 28, 1988, he was killed by a car bomb detonated by the terrorist group 17 November. He was 51.

Patrick R. Kwiatkowski of Wausau served as a Marine Security Guard at the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador. On June 19, 1985, he and 11 other people were killed during the Zona Rosa attack on a restaurant in San Salvador by the leftist Central American Revolutionary Worker’s Party. He was 20 years old.

Born in Madison, Nathaniel Philip Lane joined the Foreign Service in 2000 and served around the world. While on temporary duty in Poland, he was traveling from the embassy to his residence when he was struck by a pole that toppled after a vehicle collision. He died on November 2, 2019 at the age of 45.