Nomination of Michael Gordon Wygant To Be United States Representative to Micronesia

The President today announced his intention to nominate Michael Gordon Wygant, a Foreign Service officer of Class One, to be the United States Representative to the Federated States of Micronesia. This is a new position.

Mr. Wygant joined the Foreign Service in 1959 and was assigned as a research analyst for African affairs in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He served as a vice consul from 1962 to 1964, at our consulate general in Harare, Zimbabwe. He then went to Boston University for a year as a graduate student in African studies. From 1965 to 1967, he served as second secretary, economic officer at the U.S. Embassy in Lomb, Togo. Mr. Wygant returned to Washington, DC, to study Russian at the Foreign Service Institute for a year before his assignment as second secretary, political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, U.S.S.R., 1968-1970. Mr. Wygant served for a year thereafter in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research before he was assigned as civil operations chief in Pleiku, South Vietnam. He returned to Washington in 1973 as country desk officer for Guinea and Benin in the Bureau of African Affairs. From 1975 to 1978, he was Charge d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Banjul, The Gambia. He then went to the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, Australia, as first secretary and political officer, 1978-1981. He served as Director, Public Affairs, Bureau of African Affairs, 1981-1982, and Deputy Director, Office of Cooperative Science and Technology Programs in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, 1983-1985. Since 1985 Mr. Wygant has been status liaison officer, Trust Headquarters, Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands.

Mr. Wygant graduated from Dartmouth College (A.B., 1958). He served in the United States Army from 1958 to 1959. Mr. Wygant is articulate in French and Russian. He was born June 22, 1936, in Newburgh, NY. Mr. Wygant is married, has three daughters, and resides in Salem, MA.