Patricia M. Byrne

Patricia M. Byrne
United States Ambassador to Burma
In office November 27, 1979 – September 4, 1983
Appointed by	Jimmy Carter
Preceded by	Maurice Darrow Bean
Succeeded by	Daniel Anthony O'Donohue
United States Ambassador to Mali
In office September 16, 1976 – October 30, 1979
Appointed by	Gerald Ford
Preceded by	Robert O. Blake
Succeeded by	Anne Forrester
Personal details
Born	June 1, 1925 Cleveland.
Died	November 23, 2007 (aged 82) Washington, D.C.
Alma mater	Vassar College Johns Hopkins University National War College

Patricia Mary Byrne (June 1, 1925 – November 23, 2007), of Ohio, served as United States Ambassador to Burma from November 1979 to September 1983, and United States Ambassador to Mali from December 1976 to October 1979.^[1]

Early life and education

Byrne was born in Cleveland, the daughter of Edward F. and Mary Kreutzer Byrne, and was a resident of South Euclid, Ohio. She graduated second in her class from high school in Cleveland. She credits her father for encouraging her independence and her ambition to enter the foreign service.^[2]

Byrne was an honors student at Vassar College, where she shaped her studies toward her foreign service career goals, studying French, Spanish and Russian. She graduated in 1946 with an A.B. degree.^[3] During two of her college summers she returned to Cleveland, one year working as a riveter in a warplane factory, and another year assembling gun parts. A Vassar fellowship allowed her to attend graduate school at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C. and she earned a master's degree there in 1947.

Career

Following the completion of her studies, Byrne began working for the Central Intelligence Agency, but also took the competitive Foreign Service examination. She was one of 19 women selected for U. S. Foreign service, where she served from 1949 to 1989.

After Byrne joined the Foreign Service, she was posted to Athens. She was assigned to Saigon from 1950 to 1955. After serving as a desk officer for Laos at the State Department, she accepted international assignments in Turkey and Laos. Byrne served as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Geneva Conference on Laos from 1961 to 1962.

Byrne attended the National War College from 1968 to 1969, when she became the school's first female graduate.

After graduating she served at the embassy in Paris. In 1973 she became deputy chief of mission in Columbo, Sri Lanka. From 1975 to 1976, Byrne took the senior seminar at the Foreign Service Institute in foreign policy.^[4]

In 1984 Byrne was a foreign affairs fellow assigned to Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.^[5]

Personal

Byrne retired in Washington, where she was a member of the Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired, and was twice elected to the group's board.^[6] When she died on November 23, 2007, she was survived by a sister, Eileen Byrne Rubin.

References

1. Mary Patricia Byrne U.S. Department of State, Office of the historian, accessed May 17, 2016
2. Cleveland Girl To Become Diplomat The Salem News (Ohio), June 28, 1949, p.3
3. Dean Thompson Announces 100 Students Who Qualified For Annual Honor List Vassar Chronicle, Volume II, Number 1, 2 September 1944
4. United States Ambassador to Burma Nomination of Patricia M. Byrne The President Project, Jimmy Carter, October 30, 1979
5. Jacqueline Jones Royster, "Profiles of Ohio Women, 1803-2003"Ohio University Press, 2003, p. 106
6. Sullivan, Patricia (December 15, 2007). "Patricia M. Byrne, Ambassador". The Washington Post. Retrieved 19 February 2013.

External links

• Burma at the U.S. Department of State
• Patricia M. Byrne's obituary at the Washington Post