Nomination of Howard K. Walker To Be United States Ambassador to Madagascar and Comoros

The President today announced his intention to nominate Howard K. Walker to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Democratic Republic of Madagascar and to the Federal Islamic Republic of Comoros. He would succeed Patricia Gates Lynch.

Dr. Walker is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor. Since 1987 he has served as a senior inspector in the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of State. In 1985 he was the Director of the Office of West African Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs. Dr. Walker was a foreign affairs fellow at the Foreign Service Institute of Washington in 1984, and in 1982 he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Togo. From 1970 to 1985, Dr. Walker held several assignments dealing with African and Middle East Affairs, including principal officer and consul at the U.S. consulate in Kaduna, Nigeria; Deputy Director of the Office of West African Affairs and political officer in Amman, Jordan; and deputy chief of mission in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. From 1968 to 1969, he served as a United Nations adviser for the Bureau of African Affairs. Dr. Walker served as a research analyst, followed by an assignment as international relations officer in the Office of Inter-American Affairs, 1965 - 1968. In 1965 he joined the Department of State. Dr. Walker also served as an assistant professor at George Washington University, 1966 - 1968.

Dr. Walker graduated from the University of Michigan (A.B., 1957; M.A., 1958) and Boston University (Ph.D., 1968). He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1962 to 1965. Dr. Walker was born December 3, 1935, in Newport News, VA. He is married, has two children, and resides in New Jersey.