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 relat ...

from 2019 until 2021.

Early life

Tapia was born on January 12, 1938, in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

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

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

, Tapia joined the

United States Air Forces The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

and served from 1955 to 1959.

Career

Political Campaign

Tapia ran as an Independent for

Mohave County Mohave County occupies the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona, one of 15 counties in the state. As of the 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman, and the largest city is Lake Havasu City. It is th ...

Supervisor in 1980, while a resident of Lake Havasu City, Arizona. He lost in the general election to incumbent Republican supervisor Jerry Holt by a wide margin.

Business career and 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 university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

, the

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

Educational Foundation the Board of Indianapolis, and as chairman of board and truqstee at

Saint Leo University Saint Leo University is a private Catholic university in St. Leo, Florida. It was established in 1889. The university is associated with the Holy Name Monastery, a Benedictine convent, and Saint Leo Abbey, a Benedictine monastery. The universi ...

U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica

U.S. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

nominated Tapia to serve as

, succeeding Luis Moreno.

References

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