Bismarck Myrick

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Bismarck Myrick
United States Ambassador to Lesotho
In office
April 27, 1995 – June 10, 1998
PresidentBill Clinton
Preceded byKarl W. Hofmann
Succeeded byKatherine Canavan
Personal details
Born (1940-12-23) December 23, 1940 (age 83)
Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S.
SpouseMarie-Pierre Mbaye-Myrick
Alma materUniversity of Tampa
Syracuse University

Bismarck Myrick (born December 23, 1940) is a former U.S. Ambassador to the

Republic of Liberia (1999–2002) and Lesotho (1995–1998). He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and a decorated Vietnam War hero. He represented the U.S. at the swearing in of South Africa's first democratic parliament, led by Nelson Mandela. The Kingdom of Lesotho conferred on him the Kingdom's highest honor to a non-citizen. Liberia's major newspapers and civil society organizations named him "Diplomat of the Year" or "Man of the Year" for three consecutive years. The City Council appointed him Goodwill Ambassador for Goree Island, Senegal in 2008. Portsmouth named two streets in his honor in 2001 and selected him as a 2006 "Portsmouth Notable" – the city's highest honor. He is featured in the March, 2013 edition of "The Citizen of Chesapeake" Newspaper. Active in community service, he is on a number of boards, such as the World Affairs Council.[1]

Career

A native of Portsmouth, Virginia,[2] Myrick earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Tampa and a master's degree from Syracuse University. Spelman College awarded him a Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Military

Myrick began his military career as an army private. He performed military police duties in

Fort Benning, Georgia
in 1996. An Army Foreign Area Officer (Africa Specialist), he was Director of African Studies at the School of International Studies, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He is in the National Infantry Museum's Hall of Fame at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was the ODU 2011 Veterans Day Honoree and Featured Speaker.

Foreign Service

He joined the Foreign Service in 1980 and was assigned as Desk Officer for Somalia in the Office of East African Affairs. From 1982 to 1984, he served as Political Officer at Monrovia in Liberia. He returned to Washington, D.C. to serve from 1985 to 1987 as Action Officer in the Office of Strategic Nuclear Policy, Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs. He was Chairman (1986–87) of the Interagency Nuclear Testing Arms Control Working Group and served on the U.S. Delegation to the Geneva Nuclear Testing talks. Myrick served as Deputy Director for policy planning and coordination in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs from 1987 to 1989. In 1989, he was awarded a Una Chapman Cox Fellowship and conducted research on a project entitled "Change in the Horn of Africa and Implications for U.S. Foreign Policy in the 1990s." He holds the Department of State's Superior Honor Award and four Meritorious Honor Awards.

While serving as the

ambassador to Liberia, Myrick became the center of a potential international incident: after alleging that Myrick had interfered in domestic political issues, ruling National Patriotic Party chairman Cyril Allen urged the government to arrest Myrick. Disputes erupted among NPP partisans, as some opposed the statement of their party boss and called for an increased separation between their party and the government.[3]

The government of Lesotho awarded him the Most Meritorious Order of Mohlomi, its highest honor to a non-citizen, for his work in promoting democracy. He also served as Principal Officer in

Durban, South Africa from 1990 to 1993, where he helped manage U.S. policies during that nation's transformation from apartheid to non-racial democracy. During his military career, Myrick also served in Ethiopia from 1975 to 1979 as an Army foreign area officer
.

Myrick is co-author of Three Aspects of Crisis in Colonial Kenya ; author of "The United States and Liberia" in The African Experience: Past, Present, and Future and author of scores of official documents.

Old Dominion University

He currently teaches political science at Old Dominion University as an Ambassador-in-Residence and Lecturer.

References

  1. ^ Old Dominion University Office of University Relations
  2. ^ Ambassador Bismarck Myrick Honored In Virginia Hometown For His Service Record - Brief Article, FindArticles, 2000, retrieved 2007-10-19
  3. ^ "NPP Partisans Differ on Threats to Arrest U.S. Ambassador". Monrovia Guardian 2000-03-24: 1/6.

External links

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
office reestablished
United States Ambassador to Lesotho

1995–1998 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
office reestablished
United States Ambassador to Liberia

1999–2002 		Succeeded by
John William Blaney
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