Nomination of Ronald DeWayne Palmer To Be United States Ambassador to Mauritius

The President today announced his intention to nominate Ronald DeWayne Palmer, of the District of Columbia, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, as Ambassador to Mauritius. He succeeds George Robert Andrews.

Mr. Palmer entered the Foreign Service in 1957 and was first assigned as an intelligence research specialist on Indonesia in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. In 1959 he took Indonesian-Malay language study at the Foreign Service Institute and was then assigned in 1960 as economic officer in Jakarta, Indonesia. From 1962 to 1963, he served in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as an economic officer. He returned to the Department in 1963 as an editor in the Executive Secretariat Operations Center before being assigned in 1964-1965 as staff assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs. In 1965 he became cultural affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he served until 1967 when he became State Department faculty member and assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy. In 1969 he was assigned as Deputy Director of the Office of Philippine Affairs in the Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs and was then assigned in 1971-1975 as political-military officer at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines. From 1975 to 1976, he returned to Washington as Deputy Coordinator for Human Rights in the Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs. He was appointed Ambassador to the Republic of Togo, where he served until 1978 when he returned to the Department as Director of the Office of Foreign Service Counseling and Assignments in the Bureau of Personnel. He was assigned in 1979-1981 as Deputy Assistant Secretary and Deputy Director General in the Bureau of Personnel. In 1981 he was appointed Ambassador to Malaysia, where he served until 1983 when he became senior fellow and visiting scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University.

Mr. Palmer graduated from Howard University (B.A., 1954) and Johns Hopkins University (M.A., 1957). He is married and has five children. Mr. Palmer was born May 22, 1932, in Uniontown, PA.