Robert Sherwood Dillon (born January 7, 1929) was the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Ambassador to

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

from 1981 to 1983. He was born in 1929 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and attended

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, graduating in 1951. Dillon served in the US army for eighteen months before being discharged and continuing his education at Duke University. After receiving his B.A. in English Literature in 1951, he served as a CIA intelligence officer with Chinese Nationalist irregular forces. Following his time in the CIA, he joined the Foreign Service. Dillon spent more than 30 years in the Foreign Service with assignments including Venezuela, Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt, Lebanon. He served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Malaysia, Turkey and Egypt and oversaw the negotiations and security of hostages during The Kuala Lumpur Hostage Crisis. Dillon served as US Ambassador to Lebanon for two years, surviving the

1983 United States embassy bombing The April 18, 1983 United States embassy bombing was a suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 32 Lebanese, 17 Americans, and 14 visitors and passers-by. The victims were mostly embassy and CIA staff members, but also included several U ...

, before retiring from the foreign service in 1983 with the rank of Career Minister. After his time in the Foreign Service, Dillon joined the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

as Assistant Secretary General and later served for five years as Deputy Commissioner General of the

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians displaced by the 1948 P ...

. In 1988, Dillon became President and CEO of the non-profit, America-Mideast Education and Training Services, Inc., which he left in 1995. From 1994-1995, Dillon worked for the UN as Special Humanitarian Envoy for Rwanda and Burundi. After which he worked as for six months with the Department of State. Dillon Currently resides in Arlington Virginia and has authored a memoir and biography of his father, Dale Crowell Dillon.

Books

*''One of the Very Best Men'' by Robert Sherwood Dillon (Five and Ten Press, March 2004) (Memoir) *''An American Soldier in World War I'' by Robert Sherwood Dillon (Five and Ten Press, June 2005) (Biography of Dale Crowell Dillon)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dillon, Robert Sherwood 1929 births Living people Ambassadors of the United States to Lebanon Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni United States Foreign Service personnel 20th-century American diplomats