Terence Todman

Terence Alphonso Todman was born on the thirteenth of March 1926 at Saint Thomas, in the United States Virgin Islands, the second of thirteen children of Alphonso Todman — a Saint Thomas postal-and-customs clerk of the Saint Thomas free-port economy — and Rachael Todman. He was raised in the Saint Thomas Catholic working-class household of his father and educated at the Charlotte Amalie High School at Saint Thomas.

He served the United States Army from 1944 to 1946 in Japan as a translator and interpreter on the post-war occupation programme.

He took the bachelor’s at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico in 1951 and the master’s in public administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University in 1953 — among the first Black graduates of both institutions.

He joined the United States Foreign Service in October 1952 — having ranked in the top ten of the 1952 Foreign Service entrance examination class. He held junior-officer assignments in India (1954–1957), Tunisia (1957–1961), the Bureau of African Affairs at the Department of State (1961–1964), and Togo (1964–1966).

He was nominated by President Lyndon Johnson on the twentieth of June 1969 as Ambassador to the Republic of Chad — the principal United States embassy at the time of the closing years of the Tombalbaye régime — and was confirmed by the Senate on the twenty-third of June 1969. He served the Chad Embassy from 1969 to 1972 — among the first Black-American ambassadors in sub-Saharan Africa of the post-civil-rights generation.

He was nominated by President Richard Nixon on the seventeenth of August 1972 as Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea and was confirmed by the Senate on the twenty-second of August 1972. He served the Guinea Embassy from 1972 to 1975 — across the closing years of the Sékou Touré régime of the period — and from 1974 to 1977 was concurrently the Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea.

He was nominated by President Gerald Ford on the third of November 1975 as Ambassador to Costa Rica and served the Costa Rica Embassy from 1975 to 1977.

He was named on the twenty-third of February 1977 by President Jimmy Carter the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs — the senior State Department-Latin America position of the period. He held the Inter-American Affairs Assistant Secretaryship from 1977 to 1978 — the first African American to hold the position.

He was nominated by President Carter on the second of February 1978 as Ambassador to Spain and was confirmed by the Senate on the seventeenth of March 1978. He served the Spain Embassy at Madrid from 1978 to 1983 — across the principal years of the Spanish post-Franco democratic transition.

He was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on the twenty-fifth of June 1983 as Ambassador to Denmark and served the Denmark Embassy at Copenhagen from 1983 to 1989.

He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush on the seventh of February 1989 as Ambassador to the Argentine Republic and served the Argentina Embassy at Buenos Aires from 1989 to 1993 — the only Foreign Service officer to serve as Ambassador at six successive foreign posts and the principal sustained United States diplomatic presence at Buenos Aires across the Menem administration.

He was named on the thirty-first of August 1989 a Career Ambassador of the United States Foreign Service — the second African American to attain the rank, after Elliot Skinner.

He died at Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands on the thirteenth of August 2014 of natural causes, at eighty-eight.

He is honored here as the second Black Career Ambassador.