University of Virginia Library

RESOLUTION COMMENDING THE HONORABLE W. NATHANIEL
HOWELL, JR.

President Casteen introduced Ambassador Wilson Nathaniel Howell, Jr., his wife Margie, Mr. R. K. Ramazani, Mr. Howell's Professor during his undergraduate and graduate years at the University of Virginia, and Mr. Michael D. Capps, a University of Virginia graduate student and an intern in Kuwait City at the time of the Iraqi invasion. After a presentation by the President and a response from Ambassador Howell, the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, The Honorable Wilson Nathaniel Howell, Jr., a native of Portsmouth, distinguished himself as a student at the University of Virginia, taking the B.A. in 1961 and in 1965 the Ph.D., which he did under the direction of Professor R. K. Ramazani; and

WHEREAS, Ambassador Howell was appointed a Foreign Service Officer in 1965, thus beginning a career in which he has served with distinction chiefly in the Middle East but in other parts of the world as well; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Howell was completing his tour as Ambassador to Kuwait at the time of the Iraqi invasion in that country in August 1990; and

WHEREAS, Ambassador Howell, in spite of Iraqi threats and intimidation and eventually a blockade, kept his Embassy open thus maintaining an American presence in occupied Kuwait; and

WHEREAS, Ambassador Howell's courage and devotion to duty has been an inspiration not only to his colleagues in the Foreign Service but to all Americans;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Board commends Wilson Nathaniel Howell, Jr., and thanks this son of the University for the example he has set and for the way in which he has served his country.