Davis Eugene Boster (September 14, 1920 – July 7, 2005) was an American diplomat.

Early life

Boster was born on September 14, 1920, in

Rio Grande, Ohio Rio Grande ( ) is a village in Gallia County, Ohio, United States. The population was 724 at the 2020 census. It is part of the rural Point Pleasant micropolitan area. Although the town is named after the river in the southern United States, i ...

, United States. He graduated from

Mount Union College The University of Mount Union is a private liberal arts university in Alliance, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1846, the university was affiliated with the Methodist Church until 2019. It had an enrollment of 2,100 students as of 2023. Histo ...

. He served in the Navy during World War Two, both in the Atlantic and Pacific. In 1980, he retired from the Naval Reserve. He joined the foreign service in 1947.

Career

Boster was posted to the United States Embassy in Moscow in 1947. In 1951 he served as the United States liaison officer to the Soviet and Eastern European delegations at the

Japanese Peace Conference The , also called the , re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war, military occupation and providing for War reparations, redr ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. He also served as the staff assistant to Secretary of State

John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat who served as United States secretary of state under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 until his resignation in 1959. A member of the ...

. From 1959 to 1962 he was the officer in charge of Soviet Union affairs in United States Embassy in Moscow. Boster was the head of U.S. Delegation to the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe that would found the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

in 1973 and 1974. It would also lead to the signing of the

Helsinki Accords The Helsinki Final Act, also known as Helsinki Accords or Helsinki Declaration, was the document signed at the closing meeting of the third phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland, betwee ...

. In 1974 he was appointed the first

United States Ambassador to Bangladesh The United States ambassador to Bangladesh is the official representative of the president of the United States to the head of state of Bangladesh. President Joe Biden nominated career diplomat and Deputy Chief of Mission for the Embassy of the ...

. He served in that position till 1976, after which he served as the United States Ambassador to Guatemala. He retired in 1979 from the Foreign Service to work as the director of

Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

, a

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

based radio station that used to broadcast in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. From 1984 to 1990 he worked as an independent consultant on diplomatic and intelligence affairs in the Washington D.C. area.

Personal life

Boster was married twice, first to Mary Shilts Boster with whom he had five children, and second to Constanza Gamero Boster with whom he had one daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boster, Davis Eugene 1920 births 2005 deaths Ambassadors of the United States to Bangladesh Ambassadors of the United States to Guatemala United States Foreign Service personnel University of Mount Union alumni American expatriates in Mexico American expatriates in the Soviet Union American expatriates in Germany United States Navy personnel of World War II