William Caldwell Harrop

William Caldwell Harrop (born February 19, 1929) is an American diplomat. Harrop served for 39 years as a Foreign Service Officer, with postings as United States ambassador to Guinea, Kenya and the Seychelles, the Congo (Kinshasa), and Israel.

Harrop was born in Baltimore, Maryland on February 19, 1929. At age ten, he moved with his family to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where his father, a research physician, worked for E. R. Squibb & Sons. Harrop attended Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts. He received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1950.

After graduating from Harvard, Harrop unsuccessfully looked for editorial work with various newspapers. At the invitation of Frank Boyden, the headmaster of Deerfield Academy, Harrop spent about five months teaching at the school before entering the Marine Corps, in which he served during the Korean War.

After returning to the United States, Harrop took and passed the Foreign Service exam in 1952. At the time, Harrop was still interested in journalism, and used the G.I. Bill to earn a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri. Harrop then accepted an appointment to the United States Foreign Service; according to an oral history given by Harrop, he "was one of a considerable group of people who were delayed in entering the Foreign Service for a couple of years by Senator Joseph McCarthy." According to Harrop, "Accepting the appointment was a difficult decision for me. I had heard nothing from the Department for months, and was suddenly told over the phone that if I would appear within nine days in Washington I would receive an appointment and would go to Palermo."

...
Wikipedia