The Foreign Service Journal, September 2015

22 SEPTEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL A mbassador William C. Harrop is the 2015 recipient of the Ameri- can Foreign Service Association’s Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award in recognition of his distinguished Foreign Ser- vice career and lifetime of public service. During his 39-year career as a Foreign Service officer, William Harrop served as United States ambassador to Guinea (1975-1977), Kenya and the Seychelles (1980-1983), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire, 1988-1991) and Israel (1992-1993). Among other assignments, Ambassador Harrop was the Inspector General of the State Department and Foreign Service (1983-1988), principal deputy assistant secretary of State for Afri- can affairs (1980-1983) and deputy chief of mission in Canberra (1973-1975). He was also a member of the State Department’s Policy Planning and Coordination Staff, and served in Italy and Belgium as a junior officer. Amb. Harrop chaired the association’s Governing Board from 1972 to 1974, and has served on AFSA’s Scholarship Committee (which he also chaired) and Awards and Plaques Committee. He has received the Foreign Service Cup, conferred by DACOR, as well as the State Department’s Distinguished FOCUS ON AFSA AWARDS AND DISSENT A LIFETIME OF PUBLIC SERVICE: WilliamC. Harrop Honor Award and the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, among numerous other honors. Since retiring in 1993, Amb. Harrop has dedicated himself to supporting diplomacy and its practitioners. He is a board member of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a think-tank which promotes innovative solutions to global security challenges. In addition to serving as a member of the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs and of the Foreign Affairs Council, he is a direc- tor of the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Senior Living Foundation of the American Foreign Service and American Diplomacy Publishers. He is also a member and former chair- man of the board of Population Services International, the larg- est health social-marketing nongovernmental organization, and the Humane Society of Washington, D.C. For many years, Amb. Harrop has directed a sizable portion of the charitable activities of the Nelson B. Delavan Foundation toward projects strengthening the Foreign Service and AFSA. In 2010, Amb. Harrop became president and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Museum Council, which is now the Diplomacy Center Foundation, at the State Department. The groundbreak- ing ceremony for the project took place in September 2014. Amb. Harrop and his wife of 53 years, the former Ann Dela- van, have four sons and nine grandchildren. Foreign Service Journal Associate Editor Maria C. Livingston interviewed Amb. Harrop on June 10. The recipient of AFSA’s 2015 Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award talks about his Foreign Service career, his pioneering role in AFSA and his view of the challenges before the Foreign Service today. BY MAR I A C . L I V I NGSTON