Rubottom, R. Richard

Diplomat; interviewee b.1912.

Roy Richard Rubottom, Jr. was born on February 23, 1912 in Brownwood, Texas. During his life, Mr. Rubottom was vice president of a bank, served in the U.S. Navy, was accepted as a Foreign Service Officer, worked as part of the U.S. embassy to a number of Central and South American countries, taught at Southern Methodist University, served as President of the University of the Americas, and has advised many governmental programs and officials in his long and robust career.

Rubottom has been intimately involved with two particular organizations for much of his life, the Boy Scouts of America, and Lambda Chi Alpha. He helped establish Boy Scout troops in Guatemala and South Africa, and was a recipient of the Silver Buffalo award, the highest honor granted by the Boy Scouts of America organization for distinguished service on a national level. Rubottom maintained ties to the fraternity in which he was a member as a student at SMU, Lambda Alpha Chi, assuming roles as consultant and advisor to the fraternity on a regional and national level.

The Aspen Institute used Rubottom as a reference on their Governance in the Western Hemisphere project, a multinational steering committee headed by a former assistant secretary of state, Viron Vaky, which directed a major inquiry into the most pressing problems of both South and North America and the formal and informal mechanisms of governance appropriate to their solution. He served in an advisory position to the Governor of Texas, William B. Clements, as well as the National Governors’ Association, Organization of American States, and other governmental agencies.

In academia, Rubottom served as a professor of Political Science at SMU and later served as the President of the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico. Rubottom has published a number of articles and has also written a book entitled Spain and the United States: Since World War II, published in 1984.

In retirement, Rubottom continues to stay active in his community and church, speaking and offering guidance when he is called upon. Janice Williams is currently assisting him in assembling and writing his memoirs for publication.