J. Christopher Stevens | |
---|---|
10th United States Ambassador to Libya | |
In office June 7, 2012 – September 11, 2012 |
|
President | Barack Obama |
Preceded by | Gene Cretz |
Succeeded by | Laurence Pope (Chargé d'affaires) |
Personal details | |
Born |
John Christopher Stevens April 18, 1960 Grass Valley, California, U.S. |
Died | September 11, 2012 Benghazi, Libya |
(aged 52)
Nationality | American |
Alma mater |
UC Berkeley UC Hastings College of Law National War College |
Profession | Diplomat, lawyer |
John Christopher "Chris" Stevens (April 18, 1960 – September 11, 2012) was an American career diplomat and lawyer who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Libya from May 22, 2012 to September 11, 2012. Stevens was killed when the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked by militants on September 11–12, 2012.
Stevens was born on April 18, 1960 in Grass Valley, California, the eldest of three siblings born to Jan S. Stevens, a California Assistant Attorney General, and his wife Mary J. Stevens (née Floris), from a West Coast family of French, Swedish and Chinook ancestry. Stevens was raised in Northern California and had two younger siblings, Anne (b. 1962) and Thomas (b. 1965).
Stevens' parents divorced in 1975, and both remarried. He had a half-sister, Hilary (b. 1980), from his father's second marriage. His mother, a cellist, joined the Marin Symphony Orchestra (1969—2004), and in 1976 married Robert Commanday, a music critic with the San Francisco Chronicle.
Stevens was an AFS Intercultural Programs exchange student in Spain during summer of 1977, and graduated from Piedmont High School in 1978. He earned a B.A. in history in 1982 at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. From 1983 to 1985, he taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. He graduated with a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989, and received an M.S. degree from the National War College in 2010.