Nomination of Robert E. Fritts To Be United States Ambassador to Ghana

The President today announced his intention to nominate Robert E. Fritts, of Maryland, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana. He would succeed Thomas W. M. Smith.

Mr. Fritts has been Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Counselor Affairs since 1980. In the Department of State he was a member of the Executive Seminar in National and International Affairs at the Foreign Service Institute (1976-1977), and Director of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, and Singapore Affairs (1977-1980).

Previously he was Ambassador to the Republic of Rwanda (1974-1976); Deputy Chief of Mission in Khartoum (1973-1974); deputy chief of the Economic Section in Jakarta (1971-1973); Deputy Director of the Office of Japanese Affairs (1970-1971); and economic officer in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (1968-1969).

Mr. Fritts graduated from the University of Michigan (B.A., 1956) and took graduate work at George Washington University. He served in the United States Navy (1956-1959). In 1959 he entered the Foreign Service as international relations officer in the Bureau of European Affairs. He was born May 3, 1934, in Chicago, Ill.