January 21, 1987
The President today announced his intention to nominate Trusten Frank Crigler, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador of the United States of America to the Somali Democratic Republic. He would succeed Peter Scott Bridges.
In 1961 Mr. Crigler joined the Foreign Service and was assigned as an intelligence analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Mr. Crigler became political officer at the American consulate general in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1963. He served at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, as consular officer, 1964 - 1966; political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, Zaire, 1966 - 1967; American consul (resident) in Bukavu, Zaire, April to July 1967; American consul (nonresident) in Kisangani, Zaire, 1967 - 1969; political-economic officer at the U.S. Embassy in Libreville, Gabon, 1969 - 1970; and political adviser at the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States in Washington, DC, 1970. Mr. Crigler received a congressional fellowship where he served first on the staff of Representative Frank Thompson (NJ) and then with Senator Lloyd Bentsen (TX). In August 1974 Mr. Crigler went to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico as political officer, where he served until he was appointed Ambassador to Kigali, Rwanda, in September 1976. He became deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, 1979, and Charge d'Affaires, 1979 - 1981; Director of the Office of Mexican Affairs, 1981 - 1983; and Senior Inspector, Office of the Inspector General at the Department of State, 1983.
Mr. Crigler graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College (B.A., 1957). His foreign languages are Spanish and French. He is married to the former Bettie Ann Morris, and they have three children. Mr. Crigler was born October 17, 1935, in Phoenix, AZ.