Robert E. Fritts
{{short description|American diplomat}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| birth_date = {{birth date|1934|05|03}}
| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2015|09|28|1934|05|04}}
| death_place = Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S.
| termstart2 = February 28, 1974
| termend2 = June 18, 1976
| preceded2 = Robert Foster Corrigan
| succeeded2 = T. Frank Crigler
| ambassador_from2 = United States
| country2 = Rwanda
| ambassador_from = United States
| country = Ghana
| termstart = July 6, 1983
| termend = June 2, 1986
| preceded = Thomas W.M. Smith
| succeeded = Stephen R. Lyne
}}
Robert Eugene Fritts (May 3, 1934 – September 28, 2015){{cite web |title=MEMORANDUM FOR MR. JOHN O. MARSH OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT |url=https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0023/002302719.pdf |website=Ford Library |access-date=3 November 2019}} was an American diplomat and Foreign Service Officer. At the time of his appointment as U.S. ambassador to Rwanda at age 39, was the youngest ever ambassador in the Foreign Service. He later served as the U.S. ambassador to Ghana.{{cite web |title=Robert E. Fritts |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailypress/obituary.aspx?n=robert-e-fritts&pid=175983642&fhid=2724 |website=Legacy.com |access-date=3 November 2019}}
Born in Chicago, he was raised in Oak Park, Illinois.{{cite web |title=Robert E. Fritts |url=https://www.adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Fritts,%20Robert%20E.toc.pdf |website=The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training |access-date=3 November 2019}} After graduating from the University of Michigan with a major in political science with a focus on international relations, Fritts served as a Navy officer on destroyers before entering the U.S. Foreign Service in 1959. After his retirement in 1991, he moved to Williamsburg and taught at the College of William & Mary and was a senior fellow with the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailypress.com/opinion/dp-opedwed-story.html|title=U.S. diplomacy: First line of offense|last=Fritts|first=By Robert E.|website=dailypress.com|date=10 September 2002 |access-date=2019-11-03}} In 2015, he died of lung cancer.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/washington-area-obituaries-of-note/2015/10/19/79a84ea2-70ea-11e5-9cbb-790369643cf9_story.html|title=Washington-area obituaries of note – Robert E. Fritts, ambassador|date=2015-10-19|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2019-11-03}}
Foreign Service career
When nominated to be ambassador to Rwanda, he was serving as deputy chief of mission in Khartoum, Sudan, where he “arrived the day of the murder of Ambassador Noel and DCM George Curtis Moore and distinguished himself in the handling of the difficult situation there in the aftermath of the assassinations”. His résumé includes international relations officer in the Bureau of European Affairs, economic-commercial officer in Luxembourg, followed by Japanese language and area studies at the Foreign Service Institute. He went on to posts as economic officer in Tokyo, economic-commercial officer, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Deputy Director, Office of Japanese Affairs, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He was assigned to Jakarta, Indonesia, as economic officer and in 1973 became deputy chief of mission in Khartoum, Sudan.
References
{{US Ambassadors to Ghana}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fritts, Robert}}
Category:People from Oak Park, Illinois
Category:People from Williamsburg, Virginia
Category:Military personnel from Illinois
Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
Category:United States Navy officers
Category:College of William & Mary faculty
Category:National Defense University people
Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Rwanda