What can you do for your country? POSTPONED UNTIL AUTUMN

Distinguished alumni reflect on careers in public service

In his 1961 inaugural address, President Kennedy famously urged Americans, “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country….ask not what America will do for you, but what, together, we can do for the freedom of man.”  With these words, Kennedy, a proud Harvard alum himself, inspired a generation to answer the call to public service here at home and worldwide.  For half a century, the men and women of Harvard and Radcliffe have been at the vanguard of Americans’ commitment to serve their country, while helping to bring greater peace, freedom and prosperity to some of the darkest and most dangerous corners of the earth.

Please join the Harvard Club of Washington and three of Harvard’s most distinguished alumni for a discussion of the call to service, and a retrospective on lifetimes spent in politics, public policy and diplomacy.  The discussion will be followed by a wine and cheese reception.

Our special guests for the evening will include:

Amb. James F. Collins AB '61, former US ambassador to Russia and Ambassador at Large for the Newly Independent States

Amb. Alexander Watson, AB '61, former us ambassador to Peru, assistant secretary of state, and deputy permanent representative to the UN

Hon. August Shumacher, AB '61, former Undersecretary of Agriculture and head of the Foreign Agricultural Service.

members_$25.00

non-members_$50.00 

Biography of Ambassador Collins

Collins graduated from Harvard University cum laude in 1961 and earned a master's degree in history and Certificate from the Russian and East European Institute from Indiana University in 1964. He studied at Moscow State University and conducted archival research during 1965-66 as an exchange student in the history faculty and conducted research at the British Museum in 1966 as an Indiana University fellow. He became a professor at the United States Naval Academy in 1967 where he taught Russian and European history, American government and economics.

After joining the Foreign Service in 1969, he served at the Consulate General in Izmir, Turkey 1969 to 1971. He was appointed as Second Secretary at the American Embassy Moscow 1973-75, and Political Counselor at the American Embassy inAmman, Jordan 1982 to 1984.

At the State Department in Washington he held positions of Deputy Executive Secretary for Europe and Latin America; Director of the Department of State's Operations Center; and policy positions in the Bureaus of European and Canadian Affairs, Near East and South Asian Affairs, and Intelligence and Research. In the years 1987 to 1988, he served as a staff member of the National Security Council as Director for Intelligence Policy.^[1]

He was assigned to Moscow as Deputy Chief of Mission in 1990 and served in that capacity with three Ambassadors, Jack F. Matlock, Robert S. Strauss and Thomas R. Pickering. When Matlock retired in the summer of 1991, Collins becameChargé d'affaires and was acting Ambassador during the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt that led to the breakup of the Soviet Union. He similarly was Chargé d'affaires when President Gorbachev signed the decree formally ending the existence of the USSR. Following his return to Washington in 1993, he then served as Senior Coordinator and Ambassador at Large and Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for the New Independent States, before being named Ambassador to Russia by President Bill Clinton in 1997.

As Ambassador from 1997 to 2001, Collins's tenure played a role in critical moments in the development of Russian relations with the United States. In addition to several summits between President Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin, and the transition of power from President Yeltsin toVladimir Putin on New Year's Day 2000.,^[2] his tenure as Ambassador was marked by the economic collapse following Russia's default in 1998 and the Kosovo crisis in [ ].

After a career in the Foreign Service, he has been active in the non-profit world and has served as a Senior Advisor at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

In January 2007 he was appointed the Director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

He is married to Dr. Naomi F. Collins and they have two sons, Robert and Jonathan. 

Biography of Ambassador Watson

Watson was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University, earning a bachelor's degree in government in 1961, and joined the Foreign Service in 1962.

He served as Vice Consul/Third Secretary at the American embassy in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and in 1964 became Vice Consul at the embassy in Madrid, Spain. He left Spain in 1966 to become an intelligence analyst at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He continued to serve as an intelligence analyst until 1968, when he began attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison, graduating with his master's degree a year later.

From 1969 to 1972, Watson again worked overseas, this time in Brazil. He served his first two years in the country as a Political Officer at the embassy in Brasilia, until he was transferred to serve in the position. in 1975, he returned to the U.S. to work as a Country Officer in the Office of Brazilian Affairs, a division of the State Department's Bureau of Inter-American Affairs.

In 1975, he was transferred to the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, becoming Special Assistant for Legislative and Public Affairs in the Office of Development Finance. In 1977, Watson was promoted to Deputy Director of the Office of Development Finance, and one year later became Director. In 1979, Watson returned to Latin America, serving successively as Deputy Chief of Mission in three American embassies: La Paz, Bolivia (1979-1981); Bogotá, Colombia (1981-1984) and Brasilia, Brazil (1984-1986).

In 1986, Watson became the U.S. Ambassador to Peru, serving until 1989. In that year, he became Deputy Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations, holding this post until 1993, when Watson was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs by PresidentBill Clinton, retiring at the end of Clinton's first term in 1996.

After retiring, The Nature Conservancy appointed Watson as Vice President and Executive Director of its to head its Latin America and the Caribbean division. He has since left that position, and now works at Hills & Co.

In 2004, he joined Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, a group of retired diplomats and military commanders opposed to the reelection of President George W. Bush.

He speaks Spanish and Portuguese. He is married to Judith Tuttle, and has two children, David Watson and Caitlin Watson. 

Biography of the Hon. August Schumacher, Jr

 Schumacher has a degree in economics from Harvard College, studied at the London School of Economics and was a research associate in agribusiness at the Harvard Business School, working with Professor Ray A. Goldberg.

Gus Schumacher is currently a member of the 21st Century Sustainable Agricultural Task Force of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2007, Schumacher, along with Cathy Bertini, former Director of the World Food Programme and Professor Robert Thompson, Gardner Professor of Agricultural Economics at Illinois, oversaw the preparation of the Task Force Report of the Chicago Council of Global Affairs, titled “Modernizing America’s Food and Farm Policy: Vision for a New Direction” (2006).^[1]

Schumacher is a Consultant to the Food and Society Initiative at the Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan. He also directs the Washington operations of SJH and Company of Boston, Massachusetts, an agri-strategy firm and serves as the Contributing Agricultural Editor of Food Arts magazine^[2]

As the former Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services at USDA from 1997 to 2001, Gus Schumacher oversaw the Farm Service Agency, the Foreign Agricultural Service, and the Risk Management Agency.^[3] He was also President of the Commodity Credit Corporation.

Prior to his appointment, Schumacher served as Administrator of USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, worked as a senior agri-lender for the World Bank, and served as Commissioner of Food and Agriculture for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.^[2]

Schumacher is VP of Policy of the Wholesome Wave Foundation of Westport, Connecticut, serves on the Boards of FreshFarm Markets in Washington DC, the Environmental Power Corporation in Tarrytown, NY and GrainPro, LLC of Concord, Massachusetts.^[3]

On September 22, 2008, he was selected for the 20th Anniversary Food Arts award for outstanding service to the American food and farming system at a ceremony in New York City.^[4]