United States Ambassador to Fiji, Tonga, and Tuvalu and United States Minister to Kiribati Nomination of William Bodde, Jr.

The President today announced that he will nominate William Bodde, Jr., of Bethesda, Md., to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Fiji, to the Kingdom of Tonga, and to Tuvalu, and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to the Republic of Kiribati. He would replace John P. Condon, who has resigned, as Ambassador to Fiji, Tonga, and Tuvalu. He would be our first accredited Minister to Kiribati. Bodde has been Director of Pacific Island Affairs at the State Department since 1978.

He was born November 27, 1931, in Brooklyn, N.Y. He received a B.A. from Hofstra College in 1961. He served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1954.

From 1954 to 1961, Bodde was with Newsday in Garden City, Long Island. He was a program analyst with the Housing and Home Finance Agency in 1961 and 1962. He joined the Foreign Service in 1962 and was posted in Vienna, Stockholm, and at the State Department.

From 1970 to 1973, Bodde was an international relations officer, then personnel officer, at the State Department. He was political officer in Berlin from 1973 to 1974 and in Bonn from 1974 to 1977. From 1977 to 1978, he was an international relations officer at the State Department.