Arnold Lewis Raphel (March 16, 1943 – August 17, 1988) was the 18th

United States Ambassador to Pakistan The U.S. embassy in Karachi was established August 15, 1947 with Edward W. Holmes as Chargé d'Affaires ''ad interim'', pending the appointment of an ambassador. The first ambassador, Paul H. Alling, was appointed on September 20, 1947. Anne W. P ...

Early life and education

Raphel was born March 16, 1943 in

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...

, into a Jewish family, the son of Harry and Sarah (Rote-Rosen) Raphel. As a boy, Raphel was already interested in diplomacy and international affairs. At age 12, he wrote to the then Secretary of State,

John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (, ; February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. He served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 and was briefly ...

, regarding his interest in diplomacy. Dulles wrote back in reply, advising him to "study hard, work hard and we’ll see you in ten years." Raphel graduated from

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

(B.A., 1964) and the Maxwell School at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

(M.A., 1966).

Career

Raphel joined the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

in 1966. He held a variety of positions throughout his career until his death in 1988. He was mainly a diplomat for the US Government.http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AT&p_theme=at&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB7C36F1C888E44&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

Iran hostage crisis

In 1979, Raphel was a key member of the State Department's Special Operations Group set up to free the American hostages seized by Iranian militants at the United States Embassy in Tehran.

Office of United States Secretary of State

In 1981, Raphel served as the Special Assistant to Secretary of State

Edmund Muskie Edmund Sixtus Muskie (March 28, 1914March 26, 1996) was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 58th United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter, a United States Senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 6 ...

. Afterward, he became the Deputy Assistant to the

United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

in 1985.

Ambassador to Pakistan

Raphel was nominated by President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

and succeeded Dean Roesch Hinton as

US Ambassador to Pakistan The U.S. embassy in Karachi was established August 15, 1947 with Edward W. Holmes as Chargé d'Affaires ''ad interim'', pending the appointment of an ambassador. The first ambassador, Paul H. Alling, was appointed on September 20, 1947. Anne W. ...

in January 1987.

Awards

Presidential Citizens Medal The Presidential Citizens Medal is an award bestowed by the President of the United States. It is the second-highest civilian award in the United States and is second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Established by executive order on Nov ...

(1989)

Personal life

Raphel was married three times. His first wife was Myrna Feigenbaum, by whom he had one daughter, Stephanie. In 1978, he married fellow diplomat

Robin Raphel Robin Lynn Raphel (born 1947) is an American former diplomat, ambassador, CIA analyst, lobbyist, and an expert on Pakistan affairs. In 1993, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton as the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Centra ...

; the marriage, which was childless, ended in divorce two years later. In 1987, he married another fellow diplomat,

Nancy Halliday Ely-Raphel Nancy Halliday Ely-Raphel (born 1937) is an American diplomat. She was the United States Ambassador to Slovenia from 1998 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003, she was the first Director of the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Traffick ...

. They had been married for around a year when he died in an aircrash in August 1988.

Death

Raphel was serving as US ambassador to Pakistan, and was traveling in the plane with President

Zia-ul-Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...

on August 17, 1988, when the plane crashed, resulting in the death of 34 people, including him and President Zia. Raphel was 45 years old. He was survived by both his parents, who were living in retirement by then in Atlantic City, N.J., and by his only daughter Stephanie, who was living with her mother, Myrna Feigenbaum, in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. Raphel was also survived by his third wife, Nancy.

References

External links

Former US Ambassadors to Pakistan

* ttp://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/101586b.htm Nomination of Arnold Lewis Raphel To Be United States Ambassador to Pakistan
Arnold L. Raphel, United States Ambassador
Arlington National Cemetery
Congressional gold medal to the family of Arnold Raphel

A resolution to express the deep regret of the Senate regarding the death of Ambassador Arnold Lewis Raphel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raphel, Arnold Lewis 1943 births 1988 deaths 20th-century diplomats 20th-century translators Ambassadors of the United States to Pakistan American expatriates in Pakistan American scholars of Pakistan studies Assassinated American diplomats Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Conservatism in Pakistan English–Urdu translators Hamilton College (New York) alumni Jewish American government officials Jews and Judaism in Pakistan Syracuse University alumni Translators from Urdu Urdu-language writers Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1988 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Pakistan 20th-century American Jews