The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Foreign Assistance Series

The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Foreign Assistance Series AMBASSADOR PAMELA WHITE Interviewed by: Mark Tauber Interview date: May 17, 2017 Copyright 2020 ADST This oral history transcription was made possible through support provided by U.S. Agency for International Development, under terms of Cooperative Agreement No. AID-OAA-F-16-00101. The opinions expressed herein are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Born in Lewiston, Maine University of Maine, BA 1967- 1971 Peace Corps; Cameroon 1971-1973 School for International Training/MS 1973-1975 Industrial College of the Armed Forces 1998-1999 Teacher, Deputy Director, ESFL, Atlanta, GA 1975-1977 Southern California University in DC – program officer 1977-1978 Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (Community Liaison Officer) 1978-1980 Dakar, Senegal (USAID Executive Officer, Facilities) 1981-1985 Haiti – USAID Dep. Executive Officer, Executive Officer 1985-1990 Egypt – USAID Executive officer – cut short; husband ill 1990-1991 Washington DC – series of jobs including Director of Recruitment 1991-1995 South Africa – USAID Executive Officer 1995-1998 Washington – ICAF, Dep. Director East Africa 1998-2001 Mali – first USAID Deputy Director, then Director 2001-2005 Tanzania – USAID Director 2005-2008 Liberia – USAID Director 2008-2010 The Gambia (Ambassador, DEPT OF STATE) 2010-2012 1 Haiti (Ambassador, Dept of State) 2012-2015 INTERVIEW Q: Today is May 17 and we are beginning with Ambassador Pamela White on her first interview with us. So, as we always begin, where were you born and raised? WHITE: I was born in Lewiston, Maine, and I was raised in Maine until I joined the Peace Corps after college, so Maine born and bred. Q: What is Lewiston like? What’s the town like? WHITE: Well, I was born in Lewiston, which is a sister city of Auburn. Actually, my parents lived in Auburn and Lewiston happened to be (where) the hospital (was), so that’s why I said Lewiston, but Auburn was my hometown. I graduated with about 400 other students – so the high school was good sized. There were maybe 20 of us who “ran” the high school – we had pretty much been friends since kindergarten. We thought we were very special. (In) kindergarten (there were) probably 25 in a classroom. We walked to (school from) kindergarten through 12th grade – unless there was a blinding blizzard. And those kids that I went to school with in K-6 were this tight little group. We lived more or less in the same neighborhood. We ran everything from kindergarten to high school. Q: Tell me a little bit about your family, number of children and so on. WHITE: I only had one sister, 18 months older than me, still very vibrant and going strong today, and a mom and a dad. I grew up with a grandmother in the house, which was interesting because she was an interesting character, a Red Sox fan, a scrabble player, a harmonica player. Her husband died fairly young. He didn’t leave her with life insurance, so she had to work, which was a highly unusual thing in the 1950s. I certainly didn’t know one other grandmother other than mine that worked. She worked in a women-owned business (mother/daughter) that employed mostly women. They were paid minimum wage, but it was a decent clean workplace and the owners went to our church. So, from a very young age I had a woman role model who was a member of the workforce. My sister was much quieter, very shy. She really blossomed in collage but during her early years, she was extremely low key. Now (she) has a very successful school for young kids and is a master teacher/administrator/community leader. I always knew I was going to work outside the home, and part of that was that because of my grandmother: Nanny B. She was very smart. She taught me how to play Scrabble! I could beat most anybody, so she and I were great adversaries around the Scrabble table. And her love of language and vast vocabulary certainly translated into (my being) a journalism major at the University of Maine and having a life-long love of writing. 2 (At the) U. of Maine my sister was the first person to graduate (from college) in the history of our family. I was number two. Neither one of my parents (did). My grandfather went to Bates College, but he did not graduate. He went a couple of years and the reasons that he didn’t graduate were always a little murky! He died before I was born, but in family folklore his family was very well off, (then) went through the depression (and) ran out of money! That is the reason he dropped out of college. His sister, who survived until I was about 20 or so--maybe a little bit older—was a TYPE triple A personality. She claimed that he met my grandmother while he was in college. His family was vacationing from Massachusetts. My grandmother at the time was ‘just a pretty farmgirl” according to Aunt Helene. Aunt Helene claimed my grandmother asked her precious brother to drop out of college - a story I don’t believe but…. there were two very different stories put forward. But he was a Maine senator and very active in politics, his Masonic club, and an avid outdoorsman. Now that I think about it, Aunt Helene did in fact finish college at some point, was a WAC during WWII and traveled around Europe extensively. She taught Latin for over 50 years—strangely we were not close. Both my mother and grandmother did not like her at all – understandably. Aunt Helene made no secret that she felt my grandfather had married vastly under him. I remember having high tea at her house – an event I loved but that both my parents considered ridiculous. My mom was an expert secretary and had some jobs before she had children. She then became my dad’s secretary/accountant. She was an avid volunteer at the church, the hospital, wherever. (She was) a great cook, especially desserts. She’s (been) dead now two years, but she was a lot of fun. My dad was a master mechanic – he could fix anything. He was also an expert skier and loved any kind of boat. Both mom and dad were very hard workers. I remember for a couple of years dad had to work a couple of jobs, seven days a week. She and my Dad were outdoors people, him more than her. For most of my childhood, in the winter we were skiing, in the summer we were tenting or boating or water skiing or some outdoor activity. Maine was a beautiful place to grow up. Q: I imagine up in Maine there were lots of opportunities. WHITE: There was a lake around every corner and my dad knew them all and loved them all. He loves to this day to fish, loves the outdoors. He’s 95 and just gave up skiing about 10 years ago, maybe five years ago. Every weekend there was a family council about what we were going to do. And each girl had one vote, including my Mom--and he had two votes! So, if he really wanted to do something, he would just bribe one of us girls with hot fudge sundaes or whatever so he would win the vote. I pretty much always took the bribe. Note: dad died in 2018. We were middle class, certainly not wealthy, but no one in our neighborhood was wealthy. When I was young, my dad owned a couple of gas stations and then he went into diagnostics for automobiles, which was (at) the very beginning stages, so he was busy all the time. There were no electronics back then and very limited tv, so what we talked, we went outside, and we played. We organized fairs, and hoopla hoop or hopscotch or marble contests. We rode our bicycles for miles. We played sports and had 3 slumber parties; most of the time with very little adult supervision. We ourselves were organizing and thinking up creative activities. Q: Were you a big reader at that time? WHITE: Yes, ever since I can remember. Every car ride to wherever we were going I had a book open, always. I never had a book out of my hand. Neither one of my parents were particularly big readers, nor my sister. My dad occasionally (read). But mostly (for him it was), “Where’s the biggest fish?” or How to tie a fly” …very practical stuff. But I started with Nancy Drew and read them all 10 times and then went on to the next series. I was devouring books from a very young age. Always way, way out ahead of my class. Q: Okay. WHITE: On my 13th birthday or so--when I wanted a red velvet dress desperately--I got speed reading lessons, and I was furious! But my dad said this will be good for me because I so loved reading. It allowed me to consume even more books – and he was right. Although I cried at the time. I wanted that dress. Q: And was it? WHITE: It enhanced my whole career. When I was head of (US)AID in three countries and ambassador in two, I was reading at least 200-300 pages a day. Either you can choose to read or just use your gut, but if you like facts, chose to read.

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