Donald Ray Tapia (born January 12, 1938) is an American businessman who served as the

United States Ambassador to Jamaica This is a list of United States ambassadors to Jamaica. The U.S. Embassy is located in Jamaica's capital, Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, and was established there on August 16, 1962. Ambassadors Notes See also *Jamaica – United States relatio ...

from 2019 until 2021.

Early life

Tapia was born on January 12, 1938 in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, Michigan. He was raised in poverty primarily by his mother after his father left the family. After graduating from

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, Tapia joined the

United States Air Forces The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

and served from 1955–1959.

Career

Political Campaign

Tapia ran as an Independent for Mohave County Supervisor in 1980, while a resident of

Lake Havasu City Lake Havasu City (, ) is a city in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 57,144, up from 52,527 in 2010. It is served by Lake Havasu City Airport. History The community first started as an ...

, Arizona. He lost in the General Election to incumbent Republican Supervisor Jerry Holt by a wide margin.

Business Career & Philanthropy

Tapia served as Chairman and CEO of the Essco Group Management, an electrical production company, for over 30 years. Tapia also served on the Board of Directors for the Sun Angel Foundation and Endowment at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

, the

Tau Kappa Epsilon Tau Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as or Teke, is a social college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899, at Illinois Wesleyan University. The organization has chapters throughout the United States and Canada, making the Fraternity an internat ...

Educational Foundation the Board of Indianapolis, and as Chairman of Board and Trustee at Saint Leo University.

U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica

US President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

nominated Tapia to serve as

, succeeding Luis Moreno.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tapia, Donald Living people Ambassadors of the United States to Jamaica Arizona Republicans People from Detroit 21st-century American diplomats United States Air Force officers Saint Leo University alumni 1938 births