Nomination of Larry C. Williamson To Be United States Ambassador to Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe

The President today announced his intention to nominate Larry C. Williamson, of California, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Counselor, as Ambassador to the Gabonese Republic and to serve concurrently and without additional compensation as Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe. He would succeed Francis Terry McNamara.

Mr. Williamson served in the United States Marine Corps in 1951-1953 as first lieutenant. He entered the Foreign Service in 1958 and was staff assistant and deputy to the United Nations adviser in the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs in the Department in 1959-1961. He was economic affairs officer in Freetown (1961-1963) and deputy principal officer and economic officer in Lusaka (1963-1966). In the Department he was international relations officer in the Executive Secretariat (1966-1968) and career management officer in the Bureau of Personnel (1968-1969). He was on detail to the Office of Economic Opportunity as executive secretary in 1969-1970. He was economic and commercial officer in Dar es Salaam (1970-1973), commercial attaché in London (1973-1977), and counselor for economic and commercial affairs in Nairobi (1977-1980). In 1980-1981, he was in the Department as Deputy Director of the Office of East African Affairs, and Director of the Office of African Inter-Regional Affairs in 1981-1983. Since 1983 he has been Chief of the Aviation Negotiations Division in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.

Mr. Williamson graduated from the University of Louisville (B.A., 1951) and the University of California at Berkeley (M.A., 1957). His foreign languages are French and Kiswahili. He was born May 16, 1930, in Fort Smith, AR.