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October 24, 2012
Thomas Boyatt, Former Ambassador to Colombia, To Serve as Woodrow Wilson Fellow
Career Foreign Service officer Thomas D. Boyatt, former Ambassador to Colombia, will serve as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow at Samford University the week of Oct. 29-Nov. 2. He will deliver a keynote address on "The 100 Years War of the 20th Century" Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 6 p.m. in Samford's Harrison Theatre in a program open to the public, and present a series of classroom lectures and discussions on foreign affairs throughout the week.
Boyatt also will speak at a University convocation on "Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Election: Why Your Vote Matters to a Dangerous World" sponsored by the Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership Thursday, Nov. 1, in Reid Chapel at 10 a.m. Off-campus, he will participate in discussions on Middle East Foreign Policy at the Birmingham Downtown Kiwanis Club Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 11:45 a.m. and at a Birmingham Women's Committee of 100 luncheon at The Club Thursday, Nov. 1, at 11:30 a.m.
The Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow program brings diplomats, journalists, business leaders and other leading professionals to campus each year for substantive dialog with students and faculty. The program is sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges.
Boyatt served as Ambassador to Colombia from 1980-83. He entered the Foreign Service in 1959 and held posts in Chile, Luxembourg and Cyprus as well as assignments in Washington, D.C.
He received the U.S. State Department's Meritorious Honor Award in 1969 "for heroism in helping injured passengers to safety and negotiating passenger release with Syria" during the 1969 hijacking by Palestinian guerillas of a Trans World Airlines plane on which he was a passenger. He also received awards for working for peace in Cyprus and for contributions to diplomacy.
Boyatt was promoted to the rank of Career Minister of the Foreign Service in 1983. He has served on the advisory boards of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. He is a director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.
