Diplomat to Discuss Africa at VGCC April 16

A veteran diplomat will speak on challenges facing sub-Saharan Africa, and how such issues impact the United States, on April 16 from 11 a.m. until noon at the Vance-Granville Community College Civic Center. VGCC students, staff, faculty and the community are invited to attend the presentation, which is offered free of charge.

The guest speaker, Ambassador T. Frank Crigler (pictured above), served for thirty years as a career diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, mostly in so-called “hardship” posts. Crigler served as United States ambassador to both Rwanda (1976-1979) and Somalia (1987-1990) during his foreign service career. He retired in 1990 at the end of his most challenging appointment, as President Reagan’s ambassador to Somalia, a nation just then on the verge of collapse.

Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Frank Crigler earned a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1957. He entered the Foreign Service in 1961 and held a variety of posts in Washington, D.C., Mexico, Latin America and Africa.

Since retiring from government service in 1990, Crigler has presented his views on foreign policy issues before the Congress, in the press, and on national network television. In 1996, Frank and his wife of fifty years, Bettie Morris, settled in Durham. Currently, he lectures and helps train U.S. Army Special Forces troops at Fort Bragg and mid-career military officers at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia.

Crigler’s presentation is the second installment of an International Speakers’ Series sponsored by the VGCC Global Awareness Committee in partnership with the University of North Carolina’s World View program. For more information, contact Bobby Van Brunt at (252) 738-3412.