Lifelong Diplomat
by Janis Williams
It can be argued that Ambassador Richard Rubottom's most important professional decision was made in 1926 when, as a high school student in Brownwood, Texas, he decided to take Spanish.
"It all started in that home-town classroom," Rubottom says today. "I was captivated by the Spanish language, and I really wanted to be able to converse, to read, and to write in Spanish. If I hadn't learned the language, I would have had an entirely different career."
As it was, Rubottom enjoyed two separate and highly successful professional lives, both informed by his understanding of the Spanish language and of the discrete parts of Latin America.
His first career began during World War II. Like so many young men of his generation, Dick wanted to do his part during the war, so he applied for a Naval Commission and eventually reported to the 8th Naval District Headquarters in New Orleans, where he was in charge of personnel and training of the District Intelligence Headquarters.
Because Dick spoke Spanish, he and his new bride, Billy Ruth, were sent to Manzanillo, Mexico, for Dick's first posting. He was next transferred to Asuncion, Paraguay, as Naval Attaché at the U.S. Embassy. While there, he decided to take the test for Foreign Service officers through the U.S. State Department. With that, his course was set. When he left the Navy, he entered the career foreign service by examination, rising in thirteen years to the position of Ambassador to Argentina, which rank would mark the apex of his diplomatic career.
However, Rubottom does not consider his time as an Ambassador his most significant contribution. He's matter-of-fact as he says, "Actually, I'd say the most important work I did as a Foreign Service Officer was when I was on the Mexican desk in the State Department, and I helped renegotiate the Bracero Agreement. Later I was promoted to Deputy Director of Middle American Affairs, and a while after that, I was named Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs for the State Department. My responsibilities covered Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.
"In those days," he goes on, "people weren't particularly interested in Latin America, so part of my job was to bring attention to those parts of the world, and to serve as a bridge between the United States and those cultures."
Rubottom retired from the State Department at the age of fifty-two and embarked on a second career, as Vice-President, teacher and lecturer at his alma mater, the university from which he earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Latin-American Studies in the early 1930s: Southern Methodist University (S.M.U.)in Dallas.
Even after retirement, Rubottom remained active in diplomacy. At the age of 73, he became Director of the Office of International Affairs for the city of Dallas. Meanwhile, he was an advisor to Texas Governor Bill Clements and served on the Ethics Committee of the Texas Bar Association. He remained active in the Council on World Affairs, the Boy Scouts of America, Lambda Chi Alpha, and, most significantly for him and Billy Ruth, Highland Park United Methodist Church. Throughout Dick's career and the family's many moves, in fact, church had been a constant in their lives. Wherever they were, they contributed to their local church by teaching, hosting dinners, leading committees, serving as lay leaders, and through countless other avenues of service.
As an expert on U.S. policy toward Central and South America, Rubottom has given lectures, classes, and forum speeches on Latin-American affairs, in venues all around the United States as well as in Latin America and Europe. He has consulted with policy-makers as, through the decades, his interest in U.S.-Latin American issues continues unabated.
Because Dick Rubottom was at the table for so many historic conversations and policy meetings, his speeches comprise an historic archive of mid-Twentieth Century U.S.-Latin-American relations. For that reason, his important speeches are available in a companion paperback to this volume. Historians and scholars will discover here a wealth of Eisenhower-era anecdotes and behind-the-scenes reports of negotiations among the twenty-two countries of Latin America.
Keeping him grounded through his association with such political figures as Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, General George Marshall, John Foster Dulles, Fidel Castro, Dr. Milton Eisenhower, and the leaders and diplomats of nations from Mexico to Argentina, are three passages that Dick Rubottom long ago committed to memory.
"I repeat three affirmations to myself every day," he says. "Several times a day, in fact, I repeat them in this order: the Lord's Prayer; Mary Baker Eddy's Scientific Statement of Being; and the Twenty-Third Psalm."
"We found Janis Williams through our elder care consultants, Accountable Aging. They suggested that my father might enjoy working with a memoirist to help him get his life story in print, and they recommended Janis. We read about the work she had written, and saw several examples of books she had shepherded to publication. My brothers and I were absolutely thrilled with the result of her work, Lifelong Diplomat, by R. Richard Rubottom as told to Janis Williams. She is as skilled an interviewer as she is a writer. She is an outstanding researcher, and applied those skills in the archives and materials that were important for my father’s story. What makes her stand out is that beyond the skills required for the professional work she does, she is a caring and forthright person with great integrity."
—Eleanor Rubottom Odden