Nomination of Francis Terry McNamara To Be United States Ambassador to Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe

The President today announced his intention to nominate Francis Terry McNamara, of Vermont, to be Ambassador to the Gabonese Republic and to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe. He would succeed Arthur T. Tienken.

Mr. McNamara served in the United States Navy in 1944-46 and 1950-51. In 1954-55 he was with the State Bank of Albany, Albany, N.Y., and served as a management intern with the United States Army at Watervliet, N.Y. in 1955-56. He entered the Foreign Service in 1956 and was an economic officer in Salisbury in 1957-59. In 1959-61 he served as a research analyst in the Department, departing in 1961 to become political officer in Lumbumbashi until 1964. From there he served as political officer in Dar es Salaam until 1967, when he was assigned to the Armed Forces Staff College. At the end of 1967 he became an economic officer in the Bureau of African Affairs in the Department, where he served until 1968 when he went on detail for the Agency for International Development to serve as Chief of Rural Development and Deputy Provincial Senior Adviser in Saigon. Thereafter he became principal officer in Da Nang until 1971, when he was assigned for a year to the Naval War College. In 1972-74 Mr. McNamara was Deputy Chief of Mission in Cotonou and in 1974-75 was consul general in Can Tho. For a time in 1975 Mr. McNamara was Associate Director of the Task Force for Resettlement of Indochinese Refugees in the Department before being assigned as consul general in Quebec until 1979. In early 1980 he became Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs where he has been serving until recently.

Mr. McNamara graduated from Russell Sage College (B.A., 1953) and George Washington University (M.S., 1972). He is married, has seven children, and resides in Manchester, Vt. He was born November 2, 1927, in Troy, N.Y.