May 1, 1999
West Virginia Wesleyan College is pleased and honored to welcome Ambassador William H. Courtney ’66 back to campus today to address the Class of 1999, their families and friends.
Ambassador Courtney is a senior advisor in the U.S. Department of State on reorganization of the foreign affairs agencies – the abolishment and integration into the State Separtment of the U.S. Information Agency and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the creation of an independent Broadcasting Board of the Governors including the Voice of America.
Ambassador courtney was special assistant to the President of the U.S. and senior director of the National Security Council staff for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia in 1997-98. From 1995 to 1997 he was Ambassador to Georgia, and from 1992 to 1995 Ambassador to Kazakensten. In 1991-92 he served as U.S. Commissioner, with Ambassador rank, to the implementing commissions of the Threshold Test Ban and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty, and he co-chaired the U.S. delegation in the initial U.S. – Soviet and U.S. – Russian talks on safely, security and dismantlement of nuclear weapons.
During his foreign service career Ambassador Courtney has been economic-commercial officer a the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, political officer in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, special assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and deputy director U.S. negotiator in the Defense and Space Talks, a component of the U.S. Soviet Nuclear and Space Talks in Geneva.
Ambassador Courtney was born in Baltimore and grew up in Barboursville, W.Va. He attended Wesleyan and later West Virginia University. He earned his doctorate in economics at Brown University. He speaks Russian, Ukrainian, and Portuguese.
He and his wife, Alison, reside in Washington, D.C. with their two young children.
Sources:
Commencement Program: May 16, 1999
Eurasia.org
PLM 7/11/18