Thomas D. Boyatt
18thUnited States Ambassador toColombia
In office December 3, 1980 – April 14, 1983
President	Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Diego C. Asencio
Succeeded by	Lewis Arthur Tambs
7thUnited States Ambassador toBurkina Faso
In office September 21, 1978 – October 23, 1980
President	Jimmy Carter
Preceded by	Pierre R. Graham
Succeeded by	Julius Waring Walker, Jr.
Personal details
Born	Thomas David Boyatt (1933-03-04)March 4, 1933 (age 92) Cincinnati,Ohio, U.S.
Spouse	Maxine Shearwood
Profession	Diplomat

Thomas David Boyatt (born March 4, 1933) is a former diplomat andUnited States Ambassador toBurkina Faso (1978–80) andColombia (1980–83).^[1][2] He is a member of theAmerican Academy of Diplomacy. He was held captive for six days in a Palestinian hijacking in the 1960s.^[3] He graduated fromWyoming High School in 1951. He continues to return to his former high school to speak to students during the Wyoming School Foundation Day.

After Boyatt was born inOhio and graduated fromWyoming High School in 1951, he graduated fromPrinceton University with his B.A. in 1955. He later received his M.A. from theFletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He served in theU.S. Air Force from 1956 to 1959.

Boyatt joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1959.^[4] He served in various diplomatic posts around the globe, including Vice Consul inChile from 1960 to 1962, Assistant to the Under Secretary of the Treasury (1962–1964), Economic Officer inLuxembourg (1964–1966), and Political Counselor inCyprus (1967–1970).^[5] He later became Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East in Washington D.C.. He was Director of Cyprus Affairs from 1971 to 1974, and was named a member of theSenior Seminar in Foreign Policy the following year. In 1975 Boyatt became Minister-Counselor at the American Embassy inChile. Boyatt was nominated to be theUnited States Ambassador to Upper Volta in 1978 by PresidentJimmy Carter, and in 1980 he was again nominated to serve diplomatically as theUnited States Ambassador to Colombia. In 1983 Boyatt was promoted to the rank of Career Minister in the Foreign Service.

In 1969, Boyatt was taken hostage on board a TWA plane by Palestinian guerillas during the 1969TWA Flight 840 hijacking. Boyatt and the other passengers were later released, and Boyatt has received many medals and awards for his bravery and heroism during the hijacking.^[6]

Although Boyatt retired from the Foreign service in 1985, he became Vice President ofSears World Trade and President of U.S. Defense Systems (USDS) in 1990. Boyatt later became a member of the Advisory Boards of the Woodrow Wilson School atPrinceton University and trustee from 1984 to 1988. He has also been a member of the Advisory Boards of the Patterson School at theUniversity of Kentucky and is currently a Director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy atGeorgetown University, where he teaches. He is President of the Foreign Affairs Council, an umbrella group comprising eleven organizations which support the Foreign Service, and Treasurer of AFSA-PAC. He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and several other corporate and non-profit boards. He is married to Maxine Freedom Boyatt and has five children, Christopher Lynn Boyatt being one of his sons.^[1][7]

• Meritorious Honor Award from the U.S. State Department  – 1969
• William R. Rivkin Award – 1970
• Christian A. Herter Award- 1979
• Foreign Service Cup – 1999
• Lifetime Achievement Award from theAmerican Foreign Service Association (AFSA) – 2001^[8]
• Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award. – 2008^[9]

Boyatt has also been decorated by several other governments and organizations.

• Ambassador Boyatt's lecture on the 100 Years Wars of the 20th Century in Hargreaves Hall on the Cheney Campus of Eastern Washington UniversityVideo onYouTube.
• Ambassador Boyatt's reflection upon his career[1].
• Ambassador Boyatt on Facebook[2].
• Foreign Service Journal article on his Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award.

 This article incorporatespublic domain material fromU.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets.United States Department of State.

• 1933 births
• People from Cincinnati
• Ambassadors of the United States to Colombia
• Ambassadors of the United States to Burkina Faso
• Living people
• People from Wyoming, Ohio
• Princeton University alumni
• The Fletcher School at Tufts University alumni
• Hijacking survivors
• United States Foreign Service personnel

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Pages using infobox officeholder with ambassador from or minister from
• Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the United States Department of State Background Notes