{{Short description|American diplomat (1924–2006)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Donald R. Norland | image = Donald_Norland_in_1965,_Netherlands.jpg | order = 10th | ambassador_from = United States | country = Chad | term_start = November 17, 1979 | term_end = March 24, 1980 | president = Jimmy Carter | predecessor = William G. Bradford | successor = Jay P. Moffat | order2 = 3rd | ambassador_from2 = United States | country2 = Botswana | term_start2 = February 23, 1978 | term_end2 = September 8, 1979 | president2 = Jimmy Carter | predecessor2 = David B. Bolen | successor2 = Horace Dawson | order3 = 3rd | ambassador_from3 = United States | country3 = Swaziland | term_start3 = February 23, 1978 | term_end3 = September 8, 1979 | president3 = Jimmy Carter | predecessor3 = David B. Bolen | successor3 = Richard Cavins Matheron | order4 = 3rd | ambassador_from4 = United States | country4 = Lesotho | term_start4 = February 23, 1978 | term_end4 = September 8, 1979 | president4 = Jimmy Carter | predecessor4 = David B. Bolen | successor4 = John R. Clingerman | birth_date = {{Birth date|1924|6|14}}<ref>{{cite book|title=Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Jimmy Carter, 1979, Book 2|date=September 14, 1979|publisher=Government Printing Office|page=1677|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z_wbBNqIdXEC&pg=PA1676 }}</ref> | birth_place = Laurens, Iowa | death_date = {{death date and age|2006|12|30|1924|6|14}} | death_place = Washington, D.C. | spouse = | children = | party = | profession = Diplomat | image_size = 150px }} '''Donald Richard Norland''' (June 14, 1924 – December 30, 2006) was an American diplomat. He was the United States Ambassador to Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, and Chad.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/norland-donald-richard |title=Office of the Historian - Department History - People - Donald Richard Norland |publisher=History.state.gov |date= |accessdate=2011-12-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Lawrence Kestenbaum |url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/noone-norrell.html |title=Index to Politicians: Noone to Norrine |publisher=The Political Graveyard |date= |accessdate=2011-12-11}}</ref>
==Biography== Donald Norland was born in Laurens, Iowa, and grew up on a family farm. His father was an educator and state legislator. He attended the University of Northern Iowa and joined the United States Navy during World War II. He served on patrol torpedo boats and minesweepers in the Pacific Ocean. After the war, he graduated from the University of Minnesota, with a master's degree in political science in 1950. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1952 and began his career as a cultural affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Rabat, Morocco. He was chargé d'affaires to the newly independent nations of Niger, Dahomey (now Benin) and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) while consul general in Ivory Coast (also known as Côte d'Ivoire) in 1960. He served in the early 1960s as a political officer at the NATO headquarters, then in Paris, France. He was a political counselor in the Hague, Netherlands, from 1964 to 1969. He was later deputy chief of mission and chargé d'affaires in Conakry, Guinea.<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 December 1992 |title=The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR DONALD R. NORLAND |url=https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Norland,%20Donald.toc.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240703173109/https://adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Norland,%20Donald.toc.pdf |archive-date=3 July 2024 |access-date=30 July 2024 |website=Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training}}</ref>
From 1976 to 1979, while a resident at Gaborone, Norland served as the United States Ambassador to Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland simultaneously.<ref>{{cite web|author=Stewart Grant |url=http://www.msg-history.com/Detachments/Botswana/Botswana_Gaborone.html |title=Botswana_Gaborone_V3.3 |publisher=Msg-history.com |date= |accessdate=2011-12-11}}</ref> On November 17, 1979, Norland became the United States Ambassador to Chad. During the Libyan backed Chadian Civil War (1979-1982), N'Djamena was captured by the Transitional Government of National Unity, and diplomacy stopped. Norland and other diplomats were evacuated by French military forces to Cameroon in the summer of 1980, and Norland's ambassadorship had essentially ended. Norland retired from the foreign service in 1981, but he continued to lend his expertise on energy and telecommunications projects in Sudan, Nigeria and Chad. He worked with the Harvard Institute for International Development and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help economic development. From 1987 to 1989, he headed the training program on African studies at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute.<ref name="wp">{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2007/01/05/donald-norland/9da77e9a-530e-4e90-80af-23e736ca3685/ |title=Donald Norland; Career Diplomat And Specialist in African Affairs |work=Washingtonpost.com |date=2007-01-05 |accessdate=2025-02-20}}</ref>
In later years he lived in Washington, D.C. He died in hospital on December 30, 2006, of a heart attack.<ref name="wp"/><ref>{{cite web |author=Richard Boyce Norland |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2007-06-27/html/CREC-2007-06-27-pt1-PgS8607-3.htm |title=Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 105 (Wednesday, June 27, 2007) |lang=en |website= |publisher= |date= }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/chiefsofmission/chad United States Department of State: Chiefs of Mission for Chad] * [https://2009-2017.state.gov/p/af/ci/cd/ United States Department of State: Chad] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20141129114736/http://ndjamena.usembassy.gov/ United States Embassy in N'Djamena] * [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Donald_R._Norland Donald R. Norland] at SourceWatch
{{s-start}} {{s-dip}} {{succession box|title=United States Ambassador to Botswana|before=Dave Bolen|after=Horace Dawson|years=1976–1979}} {{succession box|title=United States Ambassador to Chad|before=William G. Bradford|after=embassy closed|years=1979–1980}} {{s-end}}
{{StateDept}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norland, Donald R.}} Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Chad Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Botswana Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Eswatini Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Lesotho Category:University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni Category:1924 births Category:2007 deaths Category:People from Laurens, Iowa Category:United States Foreign Service personnel Category:United States Army personnel of World War II Category:American expatriates in Morocco Category:American expatriates in Niger Category:American expatriates in Benin Category:American expatriates in Burkina Faso Category:American expatriates in Ivory Coast Category:American expatriates in France Category:American expatriates in the Netherlands Category:American expatriates in Guinea