Robert Morley 1957

Employment history:

Upon graduation, I taught social sciences and German at Pennington School in New Jersey and worked the summer months delivering mail at a local post office.

In 1962 I joined the State Department as a foreign service officer and was employed in that capacity until my retirement in 1995. During my career, I served at embassies in Oslo, Norway; Bridgetown, Barbados; Warsaw, Poland; Caracas, Venezuela; and Quito, Ecuador. While assigned to the Department of State in Washington, I worked on Mexico, Cuba, Eastern Europe, India and the Southern Cone Countries of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. My responsibilities required travel to India, Europe, Latin America, Southern Africa and Cuba.

Highlights of my career included an assignment to the White House National Security Council Staff during the administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, where I was assistant to the President for Latin American Affairs, and my tenure as director of Cuban Affairs at State. While working in that office, I made several visits to Cuba, where I met and conversed with Fidel Castro. During one of my trips, I also met with anti-Castro activists and members of religious communities in churches and synagogues. The Cuban government learned of this and objected. They wanted me to limit contacts to government officials and party members. I refused to abide by this stricture, and had to leave the country.

My family and I encountered some dangerous and difficult times in the service of our country.
We were resident in Warsaw during the “Checkpoint Charlie” confrontation between the United States and USSR and during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

While I was chargé d’affaires in Ecuador, I was responsible for coordinating the government’s response to an attempted coup, residential kidnapping and military rebellion. I was the charge’ in Caracas in the wake of a military revolt against the constitutionally elected government of Venezuela during which I had to call on the head of the Venezuelan military at an army base to argue our case. All I had to protect myself in a hostile environment was the United States flag on the front fender of my car. It was enough.

Memorable Central College moments:

I remember clearly how supportive and caring members of the faculty were to a student like me who was not at all sure what he wanted to do with his life. I recall how friendly the students were and how pretty the girls were. It was at Central that I acquired my love for classical music and my passion for American history (thanks to Dr. Nanes), both of which have endured. And finally, and perhaps most important, political science professor Frank W. Neuber was the person who first suggested I consider the Foreign Service for a career because of my interest in foreign affairs and national security.

What I’m doing now:

I am active on community issues. My current project is to persuade our Property Owners Association to improve handicapped access. So far, I have succeeded in getting one railing installed along a ramp and one reserved parking place close to a restaurant’s main entrance. I have been asked to make presentations to University, college and community audiences on several topics which have included: “Policy-making Process from the White House Perspective”, “Cuba and the End of the Castro Era” and “The Life of Women in Pre-Revolutionary America”. I have also written opinion pieces, which have focused largely on current developments in the foreign policy/national security area and Cuba.