Jean M. Wilkowski
{{Short description|American diplomat (1919–2016)}}{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Jean M. Wilkowski
| birth_date = August 28, 1919
| birth_place = Rhinelander, Wisconsin, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|July 27, 2016|August 28, 1919}}
| death_place = Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
| alma_mater = Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, University of Wisconsin
| image = JeanMWilkowski1962.png
| caption = Jean M. Wilkowski, from a 1962 publication of the U.S. State Department
| alt = A smiling white woman with short dark coiffed hair
| office = US Ambassador to Zambia
| term_start = June 27, 1972
| term_end = July 24, 1976
| predecessor = Oliver L. Troxel, Jr.
| successor = Stephen Low
| president = Richard Nixon
Gerald Ford
}}
Jean Mary Wilkowski (August 28, 1919 – July 27, 2016) was the first woman to serve as an American ambassador to an African country, when she was posted to Zambia from 1972 until 1976.{{Cite web |date=23 August 1989 |title=The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Women Ambassadors Series AMBASSADOR JEAN MARY WILKOWSKI |url=https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Wilkowski,%20Jean.toc.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240730144412/https://www.adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Wilkowski,%20Jean.toc.pdf |archive-date=30 July 2024 |access-date=6 August 2024 |website=Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training}}
Early life and education
Jean Mary Wilkowski was born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, the daughter of Ernest William Wilkowski and Mary Margaret "Mae" Dorgan Wilkowski. Both of her parents were born in Wisconsin. Her father ran a hotel in Fond du Lac. She went to high school in Florida,{{Cite news|date=1935-04-11|title=Jean Wilkowski Stars at Track|pages=15|work=The Miami News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81790278/jean-wilkowski-stars-at-track/|access-date=2021-07-19|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1935-04-11|title=Girls' Track Honor to Jean Wilkowski|pages=13|work=The Miami Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81790345/girls-track-honor-to-jean-wilkowski/|access-date=2021-07-19|via=Newspapers.com}} and graduated from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana, with a degree in journalism. She later earned a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin.{{Cite web|title=Jean Wilkowski|url=https://www.alumnipark.com/exhibits/featured/jean-wilkowski/|access-date=2021-07-19|website=Alumni Park|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2009-04-10|title=Ahead of Her Time: A Conversation with Ambassador Jean Wilkowski|url=https://international.wisc.edu/ahead-of-her-time-a-conversation-with-ambassador-jean-wilkowski/|access-date=2021-07-19|website=International Division, University of Wisconsin Madison|language=en-US}}{{Cite journal|date=November 2016|title=Jean Mary Wilkowski|url=https://www.afsa.org/sites/default/files/flipping_book/1116/69/|journal=The Foreign Service Journal|volume=93|pages=69}}
Career
File:JeanWilkowskiZambiaCommission1972.jpg
Wilkowski taught at Barry College in Florida as a young woman. She joined the US Foreign Service in 1944, first as a Foreign Service Auxiliary, and then as a Foreign Service Officer, serving in Trinidad, Bogota, Santiago, Milan, Paris, and Rome.{{Cite news|date=1951-07-16|title=Jean Wilkowski Home; Spends Six Years Abroad|pages=14|work=Green Bay Press-Gazette|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81791073/jean-wilkowski-home-spends-six-years/|access-date=2021-07-19|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1966, she became Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the American embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.{{Cite journal|date=October 1967|title=Jean Wilkowski Moves Confidently in a Man's World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BOOOHMEgdtcC&dq=Jean%20Wilkowski&pg=RA9-PA24|journal=Department of State News Letter|pages=24–25}} In 1969, she was briefly the Chargé d'affaires, the first woman to serve in that role in a Latin American embassy.{{Cite web|title=Her Diplomacy Spotlight: Ambassador Jean Wilkowski: Leadership, Vision, and Courage|url=https://diplomacy.state.gov/exhibits/explore-online-exhibits/herdiplomacy/jean-wilkowski/|access-date=2021-07-19|website=National Museum of American Diplomacy|language=en-US}} In 1971, she was awarded the Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Award and in 2003, the Distinguished Alumni Award by her undergraduate alma mater.{{Cite web|title=Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Award|url=https://www.smwc.edu/alumni/awards/saint-mother-theodore-geurin-award/|access-date=2021-07-19|website=Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College|language=en-US}} In 1972, she was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order "pro Merito Melitense" by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta for her efforts to aid persons displaced by the 1969 Honduras/El Salvador hostilities.
Wilkowski became the first woman to serve as an American ambassador to an African country,{{Cite journal|date=July 1972|title=U.S. Sending First Woman Envoy to Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cdcWAAAAYAAJ&dq=Jean+Wilkowski&pg=RA6-PA12|journal=Department of State News Letter|pages=12}} when she was posted to Zambia in 1972.{{cite news|date=July 31, 2016|title=Ambassador JEAN MARY WILKOWSKI|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=jean-m-wilkowski&pid=180848400|accessdate=8 March 2020}} She organized Duke Ellington's visit to Zambia in 1973, and negotiated a Food for Peace loan from the United States. She remained as ambassador there until 1976.{{cite web|title=Jean Mary Wilkowski (1919–)|url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/wilkowski-jean-mary|website=Officer of the Historian|accessdate=8 March 2020}}
Wilkowski later served as the American coordinator of preparations for the United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Development in 1977.{{cite journal |last1=Wilkowski |first1=Jean |title=The US and UNCSTD |journal=Technology in Society |date=Summer 1979 |volume= 1 |issue= 2 |pages= 153–158 |doi=10.1016/0160-791X(79)90017-4 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0160791X79900174 |accessdate=8 March 2020|url-access=subscription }} She was the first ambassador to lend collected artifacts to the National Museum of American Diplomacy, and after her death, her estate made the loans into permanent donations.
In retirement after 1980, Wilkowski consulted for the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, served on the International Policy Committee for the U.S. Catholic Conference, and was a visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. She served on the board of trustees of Barry University, where she was added to the school's Wall of Honor in 2002.{{Cite web|title=Jean Wilkowski (2002) - Wall of Honor|url=https://gobarrybucs.com/honors/wall-of-honor/jean-wilkowski/30|access-date=2021-07-19|website=Barry University Athletics|language=en}} She was a member of the DACOR Legacy Society.{{Cite web|title=DACOR Legacy Society|url=https://www.dacorbacon.org/dacor_legacy_society.php|access-date=2021-07-19|website=DACOR}}
Her autobiography, Abroad for Her Country: Tales of a Pioneer Woman Ambassador in the U.S. Foreign Service (2008), was published by the University of Notre Dame Press.{{Cite book|last=Wilkowski|first=Jean M.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/712995181|title=Abroad for her country : tales of a pioneer woman ambassador in the U.S. Foreign Service|date=2008|publisher=University of Notre Dame Press|isbn=978-0-268-09657-1|location=Notre Dame, Ind.|oclc=712995181}}{{Cite journal|last=Sibley|first=Katherine A. S.|date=June 2009|title=Diplomacy While Distaff: Profiling Women's Lives in the Foreign Service|url=https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2009.00787.x|journal=Diplomatic History|volume=33|issue=3|pages=525–529|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7709.2009.00787.x|issn=0145-2096|url-access=subscription}}
Personal life
Wilkowski died in Bethesda, Maryland in 2016, at age 96.
References
External links
- [https://www.adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Wilkowski,%20Jean.toc.pdf The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Women Ambassadors Series AMBASSADOR JEAN MARY WILKOWSKI]
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkowski, Jean M.}}
Category:American women ambassadors
Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Zambia
Category:People from Rhinelander, Wisconsin
Category:20th-century American diplomats
Category:United States Foreign Service personnel
Category:20th-century American women
Category:21st-century American women