Mary Olmsted

Mary Olmsted
Personal details
Born(1919-09-28)September 28, 1919
Duluth, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedJuly 13, 2018(2018-07-13) (aged 98)
Bowie, Maryland, U.S.
EducationMount Holyoke College (BA)
Columbia University (MA)
OccupationDiplomat

Mary Seymour Olmsted (September 28, 1919 – July 13, 2018) was the first female U.S. Ambassador to a Pacific Islands nation and was the first American ambassador in Papua New Guinea from 1975 to 1979. Gerald Ford appointed her to establish the embassy which was formally opened in September 1975. In 1978, Jimmy Carter appointed her to serve concurrently as ambassador to the Solomon Islands.[1][2][3]

Career and awards

Her early career included working at the Central Hanover Bank and Trust Company in the security analysis division and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

While assigned to the embassy in Greece, she worked with Charles Yost.

Olmsted established Endowed Fellowship at the University of Hawaii specifically for students from Papua New Guinea.[2][1][4]

In 2011, she was one of several to win the National Women's Political Caucus “Women of Courage” award in recognition of being the first president of the Women's Action Organization (WAO) of the State Department.[5]

Personal life and education

Olmsted was born in Duluth, Minnesota.[6] She moved to Titusville, Florida in 1925.[2] Olmsted joined the foreign service after receiving her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in 1941 and her M.A. from Columbia University in 1945. She studied at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy for a year, but moved on to the State Department and left before attaining a degree.[7]

Olmsted died from complications from dementia at her home in a retirement community.[2][8]

References

  1. 1 2 "THE AMBASSADOR MARY OLMSTED ENDOWED FELLOWSHIP" (PDF). UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI`I. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "MARY'S OBITUARY". Beall Funeral Home. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  3. ↑ "Mary Seymour Olmsted (1919–2018)". Office of the Historian. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  4. ↑ "The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR MARY SEYMOUR OLMSTED" (PDF). Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. 8 April 1992. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 July 2024. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  5. ↑ Mitchell, Linda (September 9, 2011). "Former Washington State Representative is one of nine to receive award honoring remarkable women leaders". Northwest Asian Weekly. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  6. ↑ Charles Stuart Kennedy (1992-04-08). "Interview with Mary Seymour Olmsted" (PDF). loc.gov. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
  7. ↑ Charles Stuart Kennedy (1992-04-08). "Interview with Mary Seymour Olmsted" (PDF). loc.gov. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
  8. ↑ "Community deaths". The Washington Post. August 3, 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
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