Robert Keeley

Who is Robert Keeley?

Ambassador Robert Vossler Keeley had a 34-year career in the Foreign Service of the United States, from 1956 to 1989. He served three times as Ambassador: to Greece, Zimbabwe, and Mauritius. In 1978-80 he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, in charge of southern and eastern Africa.

Earlier in his career he had assignments as Deputy Chief of Mission in Cambodia and Uganda, and as Deputy Director of the Interagency Task Force for the Indochina Refugees. His other foreign postings were as Political Officer in Jordan, Mali, and Greece. In Washington he served as Congo desk officer, and as alternate director for East Africa. At his retirement in 1989 Keeley held the rank of Career Minister.

The same year he received the Christian Herter Award from the American Foreign Service Association for "extraordinary accomplishment involving initiative, integrity, intellectual courage, and creative dissent." At other stages in his career he earned the Superior Honor Award, a Presidential Citation, and a Presidential Distinguished Service Award. In 1985 he was elected President of the American Foreign Service Association.