Nomination of Robert G. Houdek To Be United States Ambassador to Uganda

The President today announced his intention to nominate Robert G. Houdek, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, as Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Uganda. He would succeed Allen Clayton Davis.

Mr. Houdek entered the Foreign Service in 1962. In 1963-1965 he was a junior officer trainee at the U.S. Embassy in Brussels, Belgium. He served as political officer in Conakry, Guinea, in 1965-1967 and then returned to the Department as a staff officer in the Executive Secretariat in 1967-1969. Mr. Houdek then went to the National Security Council as a special assistant to the national security adviser in 1969-1971. He attended the Woodrow Wilson School as a Mid-Career fellow at Princeton University in 1971-1972. In 1972 he became deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he served until 1976 when he went to Jamaica as political counselor. In 1976 he served as Deputy Director of the Office of West African Affairs in the Department and then Director of the Office of Intra-African Affairs in 1978-1980. In 1980 he became deputy chief of mission in Nairobi, Kenya, where he served until 1984 when he returned to the Department as a member of the executive seminar in national and international affairs.

Mr. Houdek was born February 26, 1940, in Chicago, IL. He received his B.A. in 1961 from Beloit College and his M.A. in 1962 from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His foreign language is French. Mr. Houdek is married to the former Mary Elizabeth Wood, and they have two children.