Stevens, John Christopher, 1960-2012

John Christopher, “Chris” Stevens was born in 1960 in Grass Valley, California, to Mary F. Stevens (Commanday) and Jan S. Stevens, both members of a family of teachers and public servants. His early years were spent in Marin County, hiking, camping, and playing tennis with his parents and sister, Anne, and brother, Tom. The family later moved to Davis and, in 1975, to Piedmont, where Chris attended Piedmont High school, Class of 1978. He was editor of the school newspaper, played on the tennis team, played the saxophone, and performed in the school’s music & theatrical performances. In the summer of his junior year in high school, Chris was accepted to the American Field Service home exchange program in Spain, since he had studied Spanish. This experience ignited his interest in travel and foreign languages.

At UC Berkeley, where Chris majored in History, Class of 1982, he studied French and then spent a semester in Perugia learning Italian. Entering the Peace Corps after graduation, he was sent, because of his knowledge of French, to Morocco, where the Peace Corps required a beginning course in Arabic. He was then sent into the Atlas Mountains, a Berber region, to teach English from 1982 to 1985. On his return to the U.S., Chris attended the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in San Francisco, Class of 1989, serving as a member of the Law Review. After passing the California Bar examination, he worked for two years in international trade law at the firm of Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro.

Chris’ career in the Foreign Service began in 1991. Since he spoke Arabic, the State Department sent him to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as a Consular/Economic Officer. He next served as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, as Iran Desk Officer, and as Staff Assistant in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, before being posted as Consular/Political Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. His next two posts were as Political Officer in Damascus, Syria, and Deputy Principal Officer and Political Section Chief in Jerusalem, where he served for three years. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Pearson Fellow with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From 2007 to 2009, when the United States resumed relations with Libya, Chris served as the Deputy Chief of Mission and as chargé d’affaires in Tripoli, Libya. During this time, he worked on the rebuilding of the U.S. Embassy, which subsequently was vacated during the Libyan insurgency.

He then returned to Washington, D.C., and after a year’s study at the National Defense University, National War College, he received an M.S. degree in History, specializing in national security studies. From there, he was appointed Director of the Office of Multilateral Nuclear and Security Affairs, but shortly afterward, because of his familiarity with Libya’s government and other, non-governmental persons, he was appointed the American Envoy to the Libyan Transitional National Council in Benghazi, during the insurgency, from March 2011 to November 2011. After the fall of the Qadhafi government, he was nominated to be the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and was confirmed in May 2012. He returned to Tripoli to rebuild the American Embassy, which had been destroyed in the insurgency. He was enthusiastic about the opportunity to help launch a new, democratic government in Libya.

In early September 2012, after attending a friend’s wedding in Stockholm and a conference in Stuttgart, Chris returned to the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli. On September 11, 2012, he traveled to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi to inaugurate a cultural exchange center. That night, the mission was attacked by terrorists. Chris was overcome by smoke inhalation from fires set in the building and a ring of fire set around it. The Libyans who later found him there took him to the local hospital, where he died shortly afterward.

Chris’ body was flown to Tripoli and subsequently to Washington, D.C., where it, and those of three other Americans killed with him, was received by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a formal military service at Andrews Air Force Base.

His ashes were later taken to California, where they are interred at the foothills of the Sierras with his Stevens ancestors.