Hart, Parker T.

United States Ambassador to Turkey and Saudi Arabia (also accredited to Kuwait).

A foreign service officer for 31 years, U.S. Ambassador Parker Thompson Hart was born September 28, 1910 in Massachusetts and was educated at Dartmouth College and Harvard University. Hart began his diplomatic career in 1938 as vice consul in Austria then in Brazil. In 1944, he went to the Middle East and opened the first U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia at Dhahran, site of newly discovered oil fields. In 1947 he began working for the State Department and in 1952, became the Middle East director. He moved quickly up the career ladder to deputy assistant secretary for the Middle East, and ambassador to Saudi Arabia then Turkey.

Next, Hart served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs and as director of the Foreign Service Institute. He retired from foreign service and became president of the Middle East Institute from 1969 until 1972. Then, for the next 18 years, he worked as a consultant and special representative for the Middle East and North Africa for Bechtel Corporation, and did private consulting work for other large corporations. Hart died in 1997.

A Foreign Service officer for 31 years, U.S. Ambassador Parker Thompson Hart was an expert on foreign policy in the Middle East. He was born September 28, 1910, in Medford, Massachusetts to William Parker and Ella Louisa (Thompson) Hart. Hart attended Dartmouth College, graduating in 1933, earned his master’s degree in diplomatic history from Harvard in 1935, and a year later received a diploma from L’Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva, Switzerland. Later in life, Hart studied at Georgetown University’s Foreign Service school and, in addition, completed a one-year course of study at the National War College in 1952.

In 1949, Hart married Jane Constance Smiley, granddaughter of Elmer Smiley, fourth president of the University of Wyoming. They had two daughters.

He began his diplomatic career in 1938 serving as vice consul in Austria then in Brazil. In 1944, he went to the Middle East and opened the first U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia at Dhahran, site of newly discovered oil fields. In 1947 he worked for the State Department then returned to Dhahran as consul general in 1949. In 1952, he became the State Department’s Middle East director then moved quickly up the career ladder to deputy assistant secretary for the Middle East, ambassador to Saudi Arabia and then ambassador to Turkey from 1965 to 1968.

Next, Hart served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs and as director of the Foreign Service Institute. He retired from foreign service and became president of the Middle East Institute, a private foundation in Washington D.C., from 1969 until 1972. Then, for the next 18 years, he worked as a consultant and special representative for the Middle East and North Africa for the giant Bechtel Corporation.

Hart also did private consulting work for other large corporations such as RCA, General Motors and U.S. Steel, and published two books on the Middle East: Two NATO Allies at the Threshold of War: Cyprus, A Firsthand Account of Crisis Management, 1965-1968 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1990) and Saudi Arabia and the United States: Birth of a Security Partnership (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998).

Parker T. Hart died on October 15, 1997, at the age of 87.