The Foreign Service Journal, December 2019

48 DECEMBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Area presented him with their Award for the Use of Diplomacy to Advance Human Rights. In the early 1980s, Mr. Harris was the first person fired by President Reagan’s EPA administrator, Ann Gorsuch, for his efforts as head of that agency’s International Activi- ties Office in seeking to ban CFCs, which were destroying upper atmospheric ozone, creating a hole above the Antarctic. As a retiree, Mr. Harris continued his close involvement with AFSA. In 2000, he established AFSA’s “Tex Harris Award” for constructive dissent by a Foreign Service spe- cialist—bringing the same recognition to For- eign Service specialists as has been afforded to Foreign Service officers since 1968. AFSA members elected him to multiple terms on AFSA governing boards in the 2000s and 2010s as secretary and retiree representative, and he contributed much to setting AFSA’s agenda and policies during these years. In recent years, he has been active in several of AFSA’s sister organizations that work to advance the interests of the Foreign Service. He served several terms on the board of directors of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, which collects and manages the Foreign Service oral his- tory program, and is currently a coordinator for the group Foreign Affairs Retirees of Maryland and D.C. Mr. Harris is also currently the producer of the ADST Video/Podcast series, “Tales of American Diplomacy,” which screened its first “TAD Talk” episode on C-Span in November. Widely referred to as Mr. AFSA, Tex Harris remains in contact with hundreds of retired Foreign Service colleagues who have held senior positions over the past 50 years—sharing information with them and connecting them with other colleagues to discuss the issues facing today’s Foreign Service. He is an active member of the group of former AFSA presidents who advise AFSA and other Foreign Service groups. Mr. Harris is currently traveling to present lectures on climate diplomacy, which he subheads, “No more prizes for predicting the rain, only for building the Ark.” In accepting the award, Mr. Harris forecasted the critical role American diplomats will have in combating global warming under the voluntary National Determined Commitments regime established in the Paris Accords. “The U.S. Foreign Service will be called on to meet its greatest challenge since the Cold War in convincing elites and publics in more than 200 nations to ratchet up their cuts in fossil fuels to save the planet from further overheating,” he said during his remarks accepting the award Oct. 16. “We have probably already lost the coral reefs, much of the arctic ice and low-lying areas of Alexandria, Miami Beach and Lower Manhattan to global warming,” Tex continued. “Ameri- can diplomacy must lead the way to protect the planet from major damage. ... “New times, new challenges. Onward. Go AFSA!” he concluded. Widely referred to as Mr. AFSA, Tex Harris remains in contact with hundreds of retired Foreign Service colleagues who have held senior positions over the past 50 years. During his second term as AFSA president, in August 1996, Tex Harris (at left) led a demonstration outside USAID Administrator Brian Atwood’s office to demand “better management” at the agency, where reductions-in-force (RIFs) were decimating Foreign Service ranks. USAID VP Frank Miller is at right. In 1993, Tex Harris was elected for his first term as president of AFSA, heading the new Governing Board that took office on July 15. AFSA/ FSJ SEPTEMBER 1996 AFSA/ FSJ AUGUST 1993