Alvin Philip Adams Jr. (August 29, 1942 – October 10, 2015) was an American diplomat.

Biography

Born in New York City, he was one of three children born to Elizabeth Miller, daughter of

Nathan L. Miller Nathan Lewis Miller (October 10, 1868 – June 26, 1953) was an American lawyer and politician who was Governor of New York from 1921 to 1922. Early life and education Nathan Miller was born on October 10, 1868, the son of Samuel Miller, a te ...

, and Alvin P. Adams Sr. His father was a

Western Airlines Western Airlines was a major airline based in California, operating in the Western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami and to Mexico City, London and ...

executive. His mother owned a bookstore. The younger Adams attended

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, like his father, and received a J.D. from

Vanderbilt University Law School Vanderbilt University Law School (also known as Vanderbilt Law School or VLS) is a graduate school of Vanderbilt University. Established in 1874, it is one of the oldest law schools in the southern United States. Vanderbilt Law School has consiste ...

. Adams joined the Foreign Service in 1967 and was appointed as the United States Ambassador to Djibouti in 1983 where he served until 1985. His next ambassadorship was to Haiti, where he convinced Prosper Avril to relinquish power in a late night conversation held in March 1990. In 1992, Adams was named ambassador to Peru, serving in that post until his retirement from the

Foreign Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

in 1996.Alt URL
/ref> Adams also worked in Washington, D.C., for what became the

Bureau of Counterterrorism The Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism (CT) is a bureau of the United States Department of State. It coordinates all U.S. Government efforts to improve counter-terrorism cooperation with foreign governments and participate ...

before his Haiti stint and was posted in Vietnam prior to all ambassadorial assignments. There, he met his wife, Mai-Anh Nguyen. Before their divorce, they had two sons, Lex and Tung Thanh, who died in the 1989 USS Iowa turret explosion. Adams lived in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

and

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

, then moved to

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

in 2011, where he died on October 10, 2015, aged 73.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Alvin P. 1942 births 2015 deaths Diplomats from New York City Yale University alumni Vanderbilt University Law School alumni Ambassadors of the United States to Djibouti Ambassadors of the United States to Haiti Ambassadors of the United States to Peru People from Portland, Oregon American expatriates in Argentina American expatriates in Vietnam United States Foreign Service personnel 20th-century American diplomats