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United States Ambassador to Cameroon - Nomination of Mabel M. Smythe

April 25, 1977

The President today announced that he will nominate Mabel M. Smythe, of Newtown, Conn., to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to the United Republic of Cameroon. She is presently vice president of the Phelps-Stokes Fund in New York City.

Smythe was born on April 3, 1918, in Montgomery, Ala. She received a B.A. in 1937 from Mount Holyoke College, an M.A. in 1940 from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in 1942 from the University of Wisconsin.

From 1942 to 1945, she was an assistant professor at Lincoln University. She was a professor at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University in 1945-46 and at Brooklyn College in 1946-47. From 1951 to 1953, she was an instructor at Shiga University in Japan.

In 1953 Smythe served as deputy director of research for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund for preparation of school desegregation cases. She was an instructor at New Lincoln High School from 1954 to 1959 and principal of the school from 1959 to 1969.

She has been director of research and publications for the Phelps-Stokes Fund since 1970 and vice president of the fund since 1972. In 1973-74, she served as scholar in residence of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

She was a member of the Advisory Commission on Educational Exchange in 1961-62 and of the Advisory Commission on International Educational and Cultural Affairs from 1962 to 1965. From 1962 to 1969, she served as a member of the State Department Advisory Council on African Affairs.

Smythe was a U.S. delegate to the 13th General Conference of UNESCO in Paris in 1964 and a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO from 1965 to 1970. She was co-director of the African seminar for presidents of black colleges in 1971.

She is the editor of "The Black American Reference Book" (1976), co-editor of "Curriculum for Understanding" (1965), and coauthor of "The New Nigerian Elite" (1960) and "Intensive English Conversation" ( 1953), and a contributor and contributing editor to other books and journals.

She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Caucus of Black Economists, the National Council of Women of the United States, and a board member of the National Association of Black Professional Women in Higher Education.

Jimmy Carter, United States Ambassador to Cameroon - Nomination of Mabel M. Smythe Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/243605

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