Edmund Asbury Gullion (1913-1998), a career diplomat and former ambassador to the Republic of the Congo, served as dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy from 1964 to 1978.

Born the son of a U.S. Major General in Lexington, Kentucky, on March 2, 1913, Gullion was the winner of an international oratorical contest in high school, which was officiated by President Hoover. He spoke on the topic "The Influence of John Marshall on World Affairs."

After receiving his B.A. in 1935 from Princeton and while teaching in a preparatory school, Gullion took competitive entrance examinations for the Foreign Service. He moved through the grades of the service over the next twenty-five years, serving in various European countries. He was captured by German forces in Salonika, Greece, then was released in an exchange of consular officers. He left Greece to serve as head of a prisoner of war section, among a host of other diplomatic positions in London, Stockholm, and Helsinki.

In 1946, he was assigned to the Department of State, serving as one of the principle drafters of the Foreign Service Act of 1946, and working on special assignments including atomic energy matters. Gullion attended the National War College in 1948-49 and then became Consul-General of the American Embassy, Saigon, from 1949-1952, which coincided with Indochina's civil war.

He returned to the State Department as a member of the Policy Planning Staff in September 1952, where he spent the next five years working mainly on disarmament, dependent areas, and new country problems. Gullion was a member of several delegations attending disarmament conferences held in New York and in foreign capitals and served as the State Department's representative on the staff of the President's Adviser on Disarmament. In 1957, Gullion took on the position of foreign service inspector. Three years later he was made Acting Director and Deputy Director of the United States Disarmament Administration. In 1961, he married Patricia Palmer.

From 1961 to 1964, Gullion served as the Ambassador to the Republic of the Congo. On behalf of his embassy in Leopoldville, Gullion accepted the Department of State's Distinguished Service Award in 1962.He was elected several times to the Electoral Board of the American Foreign Service Association and also served on a Selection Board of the Foreign Service.

In 1964, Gullion was selected as dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He led the school for thirteen years, initiating several new programs and furthering the school's globally competitive reputation. The EdwardR. Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy was established during his tenure. While dean of Fletcher in 1972, Gullion was appointed by Nixon to serve on the President's Commission on International Radio Broadcasting.

In 1971, amid mounting tensions on campus surrounding the conflict in Vietnam, Dean Gullion's office was firebombed to protest Fletcher's ties to the military, causing nearly $70,000 in damage.

Gullion retired from his Fletcher post in 1978. He died in his sleep March 17, 1998, at his Winchester, Massachusetts, home.

Source: VF; NYT, March 31, 1998

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