Charles Tenney "Chuck" Cross (May 4, 1922 – November 3, 2008) was an American career diplomat and ambassador who held many positions in

American government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

around the world. He served as the U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong, 1974–1977, and was the second

United States Ambassador to Singapore The United States Ambassador to Singapore is the official representative of the United States of America to the Republic of Singapore. The incumbent ambassador is Jonathan E. Kaplan since December 6, 2021, serving as the ambassador of the Emb ...

, serving from 1969 to 1972. He served as the first Director of the

American Institute in Taiwan The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT; ) is the ''de facto'' Embassy of the United States of America in Taiwan. The AIT institution is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the federal government of the United States in Taiwan with Congressional oversi ...

from 1979 to 1981, a position which required his retirement from the Foreign Service. In his retirement he lectured at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

in Seattle.

Early life and military service

Charles Cross was born in Beijing, China, to American missionaries. His mother opened China's first kindergarten in 1919, and his father taught philosophy at

Yenching University Yenching University (), was a university in Beijing, China, that was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" comes from an alternative name for old Beijing, derived from its status ...

. Growing up in China, he was personally acquainted with Asian history at a time when most Americans are confined to headlines and history books; he was, for example, an eyewitness as a teenager to the brutal Japanese occupation of China. Cross attended Carleton College from 1940 to 1942, at which point his college studies were interrupted when he joined the Marines during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. After one year at the Navy Japanese Language School at the University of Colorado, he was assigned to the 23rd Marines of the 4th Marine Division as an intelligence officer and Japanese Interpreter. He was with the 23rd for all the division's landings: Roi/Namur, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat V on Saipan. After V-Day in 1945, he joined the First Marine Division in North China, going up to Beijing, thereby taking part in the liberation of his home from the Japanese. In January 1946 he married Shirley Foss of Faribault, MN, who supported him and their family through two more years at Carleton and a master's degree at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Foreign Service career

Cross's career in the U.S. Foreign Service spanned thirty two years. He worked in: Taiwan; Indonesia; Hong Kong; Malaysia; Egypt; Cyprus; London; and also as Senior Civilian Deputy to Commanding General, III Marine Amphibious Force for Pacification Operations in I Corps’ in Danang; Ambassador to Singapore; Consul General in Hong Kong; and as the first Director of the

. Scattered throughout these were assignments in the State Department in Washington, which included: Officer in Charge – Burma Affairs and Laos Affairs; National War College; Diplomat-in-Residence, U of Michigan; 1972 Policy Planning Staff; and Senior Foreign Service Inspector, 1978–79.

Post-Foreign Service

After retiring from the Foreign Service, Cross came to Seattle in 1982 to teach at the Jackson School of International Studies and the History Department of the

, where he taught for ten years. His time in academia also included three voyages of the Semester-at-Sea Program of the University of Pittsburgh, and a quarter as Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor at Carleton College. While at the Jackson School, he created and taught a course called "Practicing American Foreign Policy", which has subsequently been taught by retired diplomats Ronald Woods and Darryl N. Johnson. His memoir, ''Born a Foreigner-A Memoir of the American Presence in Asia'',Charles T. Cross,
Born A Foreigner: A Memoir of the American Presence in Asia
''(Boulder Colo.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999) was published in 1999. He served on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including the Lingnan Foundation in New York, DACOR in Washington DC, and the Blakemore Foundation in Seattle.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Charles Tenney Ambassadors of the United States to Singapore Directors of the American Institute in Taiwan 1922 births 2008 deaths American expatriates in China Consul General of the United States in Hong Kong and Macau United States Foreign Service personnel