April 22, 1987

The President today announced his intention to nominate Samuel B. Thomsen, of California, a Foreign Service Officer of Class One, as the United States Representative to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. He will be the first accredited American representative to this country.

Mr. Thomsen was executive director of the university religious conference of Santa Barbara, in Santa Barbara, CA, from 1957 to 1960. He joined the Foreign Service in 1960, and was first assigned as a management analyst in the State Department until 1962, when he took Vietnamese language training in Washington, DC, and Saigon, Vietnam. He served as a political officer in Saigon, 1963 - 1964, and then as a consul in Hue, Vietnam, 1964 - 1966. He served as a political advisor to the commanding general of the U.S. Marines in Vietnam, Lt. Gen. Lewis Walt, from July 1965 to July 1966. He then returned to the United States and studied at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, 1966 - 1967. In 1967 Mr. Thomsen was assigned as a political officer in Vientiane, Laos. He returned to Washington, DC, in 1970 to serve as an exchange officer in the headquarters of the Marine Corps until he was assigned as a special assistant in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, and later as the political officer until 1973. In February of 1973, he went to Danang, Vietnam, as the deputy consul general until July of the same year when he returned to the Department of State as a country director for Laos in the Bureau of East Asian Affairs. From 1974 to 1976, he was Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d'Affaires in Gaborone, Botswana. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the cultural affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria. From 1979 to 1980, he was officer-in-charge of Nigerian Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs. In 1980 he was assigned to the Office of International Science and Technology Cooperation in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, first as Deputy Director (1980 - 1981), and then as Director (1981 - 1983). Since 1983 he has been Deputy United States Representative for Micronesian Status Negotiations in Washington, DC.

Mr. Thomsen graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles (B.A., 1957). He is articulate in French and Vietnamese. Mr. Thomsen was born July 10, 1931, in St. Paul, MN. He served in the United States Army, 1951 - 1954. Mr. Thomsen resides in Falls Church, VA, with his wife and three children.

 

Date
04/22/1987