Nomination of Gary L. Matthews To Be United States Ambassador to Malta

The President today announced his intention to nominate Gary L. Matthews, of Virginia, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Malta. He would succeed James Malone Rentschler.

Mr. Matthews was appointed a Foreign Service officer and began his training in 1961. In 1962 he went to Bonn, Germany, as a rotational officer, where he served until 1964 when he returned to the Department as an operations center watch officer. In 1965-1966 he took Polish language training at the Foreign Service Institute. In 1966 he became a consular officer at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, and in 1967-1968 served as political/economic officer at the American Consulate in Poznan, Poland. In 1968 he took Soviet/East European studies at Columbia University in New York. In 1969-1971 he was an international relations officer in the Office of Soviet Union Affairs. From there, in 1971, he became an assistant province adviser in Quang Nam; deputy, then province senior adviser in Thau Thien and the City of Hue in the Republic of Vietnam- In 1973 he became deputy principal officer and political/economic officer at the American Consulate General in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. In 1976 Mr. Matthews went on a detail assignment to the Governor as director of international business development, State government of Missouri, Jefferson City. In 1977-1980 he was officer-in-charge, multilateral political relations in the Office of Soviet Union Affairs, to be followed as special assistant to the special adviser on Soviet affairs in the Department. In 1981-1982 he was Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and then in 1982 Executive Assistant, to be followed as Executive Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State. In 1982-1983 he was a member of the executive seminar in national and international affairs at the Department. Since 1983 he has been Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs.

Mr. Matthews was born January 24, 1938, in Springfield, MO. He graduated from Drury College (B.A., 1960), Oklahoma State University (M.A., 1961), and Columbia University (M.I.A, 1969). He served in the U.S. Army in 1955-1958. Mr. Matthews' foreign languages are Russian, Polish, and German. He is married to the former Virginia Webster, and they have three children.