September 13, 1983
The President today accorded the personal rank of Ambassador to Thomas J. Dunnigan, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, while serving as Head of the United States Delegation to this year's annual meeting of the Inter-American Council for Education, Science, and Culture to be held in Kingston, Jamaica, September 19 - 23, 1983.
Mr. Dunnigan served in the United States Army in 1943 - 1946. In 1946 he entered the Foreign Service as Foreign Service officer general, then political reporting officer in Berlin. He was political officer in London (1950 - 1954), in Manila (1954 - 1956), and Hong Kong (1956 - 1957). In 1957 - 1961 he was foreign affairs officer in the Department, and attended the National War College in 1961 - 1962. In 1962 - 1965 he was political officer in Bonn. In the Department he was supervisory personnel management specialist, the personnel officer in 1965 - 1969. He was political officer in The Hague (1969 - 1972), Deputy Chief of Mission in Copenhagen (1972 - 1975), and in Tel Aviv (1975 - 1977). In 1977 - 1978 he was diplomat in residence at Centre College in Kentucky. In 1978 - 1981 he was Deputy Chief of Mission in The Hague. Since 1981 he has been in the Department as group director of the Iranian Small Claims Group (1981 - 1982), State Department Representative to the National Intelligence Emergency Support Office (1982 - 1983), and from 1983 to the present, he has been Deputy United States Permanent Representative to the United States Mission to the Organization of American States, and also as United States Representative to the Inter-American Council for Education, Science, and Culture.
Mr. Dunnigan graduated from John Carroll University (A.B., 1943) and George Washington University (M.A., 1967). His foreign languages are Dutch and German. He was born May 22, 1921, in Canton, Ohio.