OWEN ROBERTS

Owen W. Roberts  
A longtime United States foreign service officer and former U.S. Ambassador to Togo, died on June 10, 2017, in Redwood City, California, at the age of 93. He and his wife, Janet Roberts, had recently relocated from their longtime home in Washington, DC. Owen was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, on March 29, 1924. His parents were Thomas C. Roberts and Sylvia Goddard Roberts of Princeton, NJ. Owen graduated from Princeton University (A.B.) in 1948 and Columbia University in 1955 with an M.A. and PhD in international affairs. Owen Roberts started at Princeton University as an electrical engineer, but enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943. Landing in Marseille with the 14th Armored Division, his reconnaissance platoon advanced up the Rhone Valley and into Alsace, to Strasbourg. He experienced deeply the uncontrollable savagery and vast waste entailed by any war, and decided to devote his life to diplomacy.  In 1955 he entered the Foreign Service and his career took him to many posts throughout Africa. He felt his most important positions were as the Deputy Director of the Sinai Field Mission following the 1973 Egypt-Israel War, deputy chief of mission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,from 1979 to 1982, and Ambassador to the Republic of Togo in 1984. He retired in 1989.Owen Roberts was particularly interested in influencing events through grass-roots work, during a career that saw the creation of the Peace Corps and many other international-development efforts. Owen is survived by his wife, Janet Roberts; son, Read Roberts,(Monique Castiaux); and granddaughter Gabrielle Roberts. His memorial service was held on Great Cranberry Island, Maine on August 25, 2017.