Amb. Tom Melady served with us for many years on the Board of Trustees at IWP. I was constantly grateful for his advice having served many decades as President of Sacred Heart, Dean of Seton Hall, and other numerous academic appointments – his background was in academe. He was our Senior Diplomat in Residence and Professor. He was always available to talk with our students – he helped some with their papers, others with career planning, and still others with personal problems.
Tom had a distinguished career, Ambassador to Burundi and Uganda during the Nixon Administration, Assistant Secretary of Education for Higher Education during the Reagan era, and Ambassador to the Holy See during the Bush administration. Last January, he was asked to be the interim Dean of the School of Diplomacy at Seton Hall, where he had previously served as Dean. For most of last year, he commuted to Newark while spending two days a week at IWP.
Personally, I will miss Tom. I enjoyed being with him, working with him. This summer, he and I put together several op-ed pieces – he published commentaries on current issues on a regular basis. He was probably the most published member of our faculty – I think he leaves almost a complete book on Diplomacy. We will make sure it gets completed and published.
Owen T. Smith
Chairman, Board of Trustees
The Institute of World Politics
Photo: Amb. Melady receives an award at a dinner for the IWP Board of Trustees, May 2012.