Previous Ambassadors
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Hugh S. Gibson
Hugh S. Gibson of California was Ambassador to Poland from 1919 to 1924. He was born in 1883 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He also served as Ambassador in Switzerland, Belgium (twice), Luxembourg, and Brazil. In 1952 he was appointed Director of the Provisional Intergovernmental Committee on the Movement of Migrants from Europe. He was author of “The Problems of Lasting Peace,” (1942) co-written with Herbert Hoover, and “The Road to Foreign Policy,” (1944). Ambassador Gibson died in 1954 in Geneva, Switzerland.
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Alfred J. Pearson
Alfred J. Pearson of Iowa was Ambassador to Poland from 1924 to 1925. He was born in 1869 in Sweden and came to the United States in his infancy. He was professor of German language and literature at Drake University. He also served as Ambassador to Finland from 1925 to 1930 and was later Dean of the College of Liberal Arts of Drake University. Ambassador Pearson died in 1939.
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John B. Stetson
John B. Stetson, Jr. of Pennsylvania was Ambassador to Poland from 1925 to 1929. He was born in 1884, son of the founder of the John B. Stetson Co., and worked in his father’s firm. He was appointed by President Coolidge; after he resigned in 1929, he formed a brokerage firm. Ambassador Stetson died in 1952.
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John N. Willys
John N. Willys of Ohio was Ambassador to Poland from 1930 to 1932. He was born in 1873, and was an American automotive pioneer and statesman with the Willys-Overland Motor Company, which become the second largest carmaker in the United States. He was appointed Ambassador by President Herbert Hoover. Ambassador Willys died in 1935 in New York.
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Ferdinand Lammot Belin
Ferdinand Lammot Belin of Pennsylvania was Ambassador to Poland from 1932 to 1933. He was born in 1881 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He was later Chief of the State Department's Division of International Conferences & Protocol, with which went the job of social arbiter at the White House. Ambassador Belin died in 1961.
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John C. Cudahy
John C. Cudahy of Wisconsin was Ambassador to Poland from 1933 to 1937. He was born in 1887 and was a lawyer, a member of Wisconsin Bar Association and a real estate broker. His time in Poland was marked by a militarily backed government under Józef Piłsudski and increasing tensions between Poland and Germany under Adolf Hitler. He later served as Ambassador to Ireland from 1937 to 1939 and to Belgium from 1939 to 40. Cudahy personally interviewed Hitler and wrote the book “The Army's March.” Ambassador Cudahy died in 1943 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr.
Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr. of Pennsylvania was Ambassador to Poland from 1937 to 1943. He was born in 1897. As Ambassador, Biddle left Warsaw on September 5, 1939, and followed the Government of Poland first to France (from September 1939 to June 1940) and later to England (where Biddle arrived Mar 14, 1941). He was also commissioned to Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Yugoslavia and was resident in London during his service as ambassador to those countries. He left London on December 1, 1943, and later served with the U.S. Army with the rank of major general until 1961. He was Ambassador to Spain in 1961. Ambassador Biddle died in 1961.
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Arthur Bliss Lane
Arthur Bliss Lane of New York was Ambassador to the Polish Government in London in September 1944 and then was Ambassador to Poland from 1945 to 1947 after the U.S. Embassy in Poland was reestablished on July 5, 1945. He was born in 1894, and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He served as Minister Plenipotentiary to Nicaragua, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Yugoslavia and Costa Rica, and was then Ambassador to Colombia. He also served as Chairman of the American Committee to Investigate the Katyn Massacre. He was the author of “How Russia Rules Poland,” (1947) and “I Saw Poland Betrayed,” (1948). Ambassador Lane died in 1956 in Washington, DC.
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Stanton Griffis
Stanton Griffis of Connecticut was Ambassador to Poland in 1947. He was born in 1887 and had a career as an investment banker. He was chairman of the executive committee of Paramount Pictures and a director of Madison Square Garden. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, Argentina and Spain. He was Ambassador to Argentina while Juan and Eva Peron were in power and wrote of his experiences in a book titled "Lying In State." Ambassador Griffis died in 1974 in New York.
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Waldemar J. Gallman
Waldemar J. Gallman of New York was Ambassador to Poland from 1948 to 1950. He was born in 1899 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He served as Ambassador to South Africa, Iraq and Arab Union. In 1958 he became the Director General of the U.S. Foreign Service. He was later a member of the Faculty of the George Washington University and author of “Iraq Under General Nuri: My Recollection of Nuri Al-Said, 1954-1958.” Ambassador Gallman died in 1980 in Washington, DC.
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Joseph Flack
Joseph Flack of Pennsylvania was Ambassador to Poland from 1950 to 1955. He was born in 1894 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He also served as Ambassador to Bolivia and Costa Rica. Ambassador Flack died in 1955 aboard the liner “United States” while on his way home from Warsaw for reassignment.
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Joseph E. Jacobs
Joseph E. Jacobs of South Carolina was Ambassador to Poland from 1955 to 1957. He was born in 1893 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia in 1948 and was later Special Assistant for the Mutual Defense Assistance Program in Rome from 1949 to 1955. The 1956 Riots in Poznan took place while he was Ambassador to Poland. Ambassador Jacobs died in 1971 in Washington, D.C.
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Jacob D. Beam
Jacob D. Beam of New Jersey was Ambassador to Poland from 1957 to 1961. He was born in 1908 and was a career Foreign Service officer. During the period of his assignment to Poland, Poland was the only official channel of communication between the United States and Communist China. He was also ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1966-1968) during the time of the Soviet invasion, and to the Soviet Union (1969-1973) during the Nixon-era rapprochement. He also served as a director of Radio Free Europe (1974-1977). In 1978 Beam published his memoirs of Moscow, entitled “Multiple Exposure: An American Ambassador's Unique Perspective on East-West Issues.” Ambassador Beam died in Maryland in 1993.
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John M. Cabot
John M. Cabot of Washington, D.C was Ambassador to Poland from 1962 to 1965. He was born in 1901 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He also served as Ambassador to Pakistan, Sweden, Colombia, and Brazil. He took part in dialogues with the Chinese Ambassador to Poland over the Vietnam War, rebuilding Washington-Beijing relations. He was Deputy Commandant of the National War College and lecturer at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He was the author of “The Racial Conflict in Transylvania,” (1926) and “Toward Our Common American Destiny,” (1955). Ambassador Cabot died in 1981.
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John A. Gronouski
John A. Gronouski of Wisconsin was Ambassador to Poland from 1965 to 1968. He was born in 1919 and was the Wisconsin state commissioner of taxation. After his well regarded revamping of the Wisconsin tax system, he was appointed postmaster general by President Kennedy in 1963 and became well known for expanding the zip code system. He was the first Polish-American Cabinet officer. He became the founding dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Ambassador Gronouski died in 1996.
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Walter J. Stoessel, Jr.
Walter J. Stoessel, Jr. of California was Ambassador to Poland from 1968 to 1972. He was born in 1920 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. At Henry Kissinger’s request, he started talks with the Chinese Ambassador to Poland to rekindle US – China relations. He served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Germany. He later was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, then Deputy Secretary of State and Secretary of State ad interim. Ambassador Stoessel died in 1986.
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Richard T. Davies
Richard T. Davies of Wyoming was Ambassador to Poland from 1973 to 1978. He was born in 1920 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He worked on trade issues and helped arrange state visits by presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter. Ambassador Davies entered the Foreign Service in 1947 and was posted to Warsaw where he met and married his wife. During his thirty-three year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, he also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs from 1970 to 1972. After retiring from the Foreign Service, he was involved in human rights organizations focused on Eastern Europe and was a frequent contributor to op-ed pages. Ambassador Davies died in 2005 in Washington, D.C.
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William E. Schaufele
William E. Schaufele of Ohio was Ambassador to Poland from 1978 to 1980. He was born in 1923 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He also was Ambassador to Upper Volta and Greece, and Deputy Representative of the United States in the Security Council of the U.N. He served as Inspector General in the Foreign Service in 1975; later he was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and President of the Foreign Policy Association. He received the Wilbur Carr Award upon retiring from the Foreign Service after his tour in Poland. He was author of “The Polish Paradox: Communism and National Renewal,” (1981). Ambassador Schaufele died on January 17, 2008 in Salisbury, CT.
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Francis J. Meehan
Francis J. Meehan of Washington, DC was Ambassador to Poland from 1980 to 1983. He was born in 1924 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He also was U.S. Ambassdor to Czechoslavakia from 1979 to 1980 and Ambassador to East Germany from 1985 to 1988. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Budapest from 1968 to 1972, in Vienna from 1975 to 1977, and in Bonn from 1977 to 1979. He was later Professor of Diplomacy at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. He now lives in Scotland near Glasgow.
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John R. Davis Jr.
John R. Davis Jr. of California was Ambassador to Poland from 1988 to 1990. He was born in 1927 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He served in Poland as Charge d’Affaires ad interim from 1983-87 and Charge d’Affaires 1987-88 before being appointed Ambassador. He served as a mediator during the Round Table negotiations and organized informal meetings among Round Table participants at the Ambassador's Residence in Warsaw in the late 1980s. He was Director of the Eastern European and Yugoslav Affairs Office in the Department of State. From 1992 to 1994, he was U.S. Ambassador to Romania. He now lives in Charlottesville, VA.
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Thomas W. Simons, Jr.
Thomas W. Simons, Jr. of Washington, DC was Ambassador to Poland from 1990 to 1993. He was born in 1938 and was a career Foreign Service Officer. He served as Coordinator of U.S. Assistance to the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union (1993-1995). He later served as ambassador to Pakistan (1996-1998). He was also a consulting professor of history at Stanford and Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Kennan Institute of Advanced Russian Studies in Washington, and is currently Lecturer in Government at Harvard and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. He has written three books: “The End of the Cold War?” (1990), “Eastern Europe in the Postwar World,” (1993) and “Islam in a Globalizing World,” (2003). Ambassador Simons now resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Nicholas A. Rey
Nicholas A. Rey of New York was Ambassador to Poland from 1993 to 1997. He was born in 1938 in Warsaw. His family fled to the US to escape the Nazi invasion in 1939 and he was subsequently naturalized a U.S. citizen. Rey was a director and Vice Chairman of the Polish American Enterprise Fund between 1990 and 1993. Previously, he spent 25 years as an investment banker with Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Director of the Polish American Freedom Foundation as well as the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. He passed away on January 13, 2009.
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Daniel Fried
Daniel Fried of Washington, DC was Ambassador to Poland from 1997 to 2000. He was born in 1952 and is a career Foreign Service Officer. He served on the staff of the National Security Council from 1993 until 1997, first as a Director and then as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Central and Eastern Europe. At the White House, he was active in designing U.S. policy on Euro-Atlantic security, including NATO enlargement and the Russia-NATO relationship. Ambassador Fried was Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the Department of State from 2005 to May 2009. In March 2009, U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, appointed Ambassador Fried, a seasoned diplomat with a strong record of accomplishment, to lead a dedicated team to carry out President Obama's commitment to close the detention facility at Guantanamo.
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Christopher R. Hill
Christopher R. Hill of Rhode Island was Ambassador to Poland from 2000 to 2004. He was born in 1952 and is a career Foreign Service Officer. Previously he served as Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia (1996-1999) and Special Envoy to Kosovo (1998-1999). He also served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Southeast European Affairs in the National Security Council. In 2005 he was named as Head of the U.S. delegation to the Six-Party Talks on the North Korean nuclear issue. He served as Ambassador to South Korea from 2004 to 2005 when he became Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Ambassador Hill is now the Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
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Victor H. Ashe
Victor H. Ashe of Tennessee was Ambassador to Poland from July 22, 2004 to September 26, 2009. He was born in 1945 and has a distinguished career in public service. Previously, he served for 16 years as the Mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee from 1988 to 2003 and 15 years in the Tennessee House and Senate from 1968 to 1984. In January 2003, he received the Distinguished Public Service Award of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Ambassador Ashe served four years on the National Service Corporation Board appointed by President Clinton and on the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations by appointment of both Presidents Bush and Reagan. Ambassador Ashe is also the past president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. During his time as Ambassador to Poland, he visited all 16 provinces of Poland and over 185 Polish cities and towns. Ambassador Ashe lives in Knoxville, TN. Ashe currently serves on the Broadcasting Board of Governors by appointment of President Obama and confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
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Lee A. Feinstein
Ambassador Lee A. Feinstein served in Poland between November 2009 and October 2012. Ambassador Feinstein was appointed to be America’s 25th ambassador to the Republic of Poland by Secretary Clinton and President Obama and approved by the United States Senate by unanimous consent. Having worked for two Secretaries of State, one Secretary of Defense, and at American research and human rights institutions, Ambassador Feinstein has a distinguished record both in and outside of government. Ambassador Feinstein was national security director to then-Senator Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential primary and later senior foreign policy advisor to then-Senator Barack Obama. He was appointed in November 2008 by President-elect Obama to serve on the transition team for the Department of State. Ambassador Feinstein prioritized working with Poland to build a modern relationship that reflects our shared values and interests in the new century and Poland’s growing voice in the transatlantic community. His focus was on the three pillars of our bilateral relationship: security, prosperity (including energy), and promoting democracy.