Grover Joseph Rees III | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Ambassador to East Timor | |
| In office 2003–2006 | |
| Preceded by | Shari Villarosa |
| Succeeded by | W. Gary Gray |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1951-10-11)October 11, 1951 (age 73) New Orleans,Louisiana |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Divorced (2) Landai Nguyen Rees |
| Children | Grover J. Reese, IV from first marriage |
| Alma mater | Yale University Louisiana State University Law School |
| Occupation | Attorney;Diplomat Law professor |
Grover Joseph Rees III (born October 11, 1951) is aLouisiana lawyer who served as chief justice of theHigh Court of American Samoa from 1986 to 1991, and as the firstUnited States Ambassador to East Timor from 2002 to 2006.
Born inNew Orleans, Rees was the oldest of twelve children born to Grover Joseph Rees II and Patricia Byrne Rees.[1] Rees graduated fromGeorgetown Preparatory School in 1968,[2] and thereafter received an undergraduate degree fromYale University, and a Juris Doctor from theLouisiana State UniversityPaul M. Hebert Law Center in 1978.[3][4] From 1978 to 1979, he served as alaw clerk toAlbert Tate Jr. of theLouisiana Supreme Court.
Rees was a law professor at theUniversity of Texas School of Law from 1979 to 1986.[4][5]
Rees served as chief justice of theHigh Court of American Samoa from 1986 to 1991,[4] having served under appointment from both PresidentsRonald Reagan andGeorge H. W. Bush.[3] From 2001 to 2002, Rees served as the Counsel to the United States House of Representatives Committee on International Relations.[4] In 2002, PresidentGeorge W. Bush nominated Rees as the firstUnited States Ambassador to East Timor.[4] Rees presented his credentials to the president of theDemocratic Republic of East Timor, Kay RalaXanana Gusmão in December 2002, and thereafter served for four years.[3][1] From October 2006 to January 2009, he was a Special Representative for Social Issues in theUnited States Department of State.[5]
In 2016, Rees was a candidate in the2016 United States House of Representatives elections in Louisiana, forLouisiana's 3rd congressional district.[1] He was endorsed by former Mayor ofLafayetteDud Lastrapes,[6] and formerUnited States Ambassador to the United NationsJohn Bolton,[7] but received less than one percent of the vote in a crowdedjungle primary.[8]
In 2017, Rees was one of a group of 25 international figures who released a joint statement describing the2017 imprisonment of Hong Kong democracy activists as "outrageously unjust". The signatories called the Umbrella Movement "one of the most peaceful and restrained movements of public protest the world has ever seen" and wrote that the sentencing amounted to "an outrageous miscarriage of justice, a death knell for Hong Kong’s rule of law and basic human rights, and a severe blow to the principles of 'One Country, Two Systems'".[9]