F.J. Galbraith; First U.S. Envoy to Singapore
WASHINGTON — Francis Joseph Galbraith, 72, former U.S. ambassador to Singapore and Indonesia, died Wednesday of cancer at George Washington University Hospital, his family said.
A career foreign service officer from 1946 until his retirement in 1974, Galbraith was selected by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966 to be the first American ambassador to Singapore after the island-nation’s independence.
Subsequently, he served as ambassador to Jakarta from 1969 to 1974. Upon retirement from the State Department he served as a consultant for a number of private companies.
In 1974 he became a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s center for international affairs.
Galbraith, educated as a historian, entered the Foreign Service in 1946 and served in various posts in Germany, London and Indonesia before his Singapore appointment.
In 1974, he received the “Binting Jasa Utama” (First Service Star) from Indonesian President Suharto.
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