Gerald Sutton

Gerald Sutton. Career Foreign Service and Civil Service officer in the United States Department of State (1956-98).

Assigned during his diplomatic career to seven countries (Spain, Cuba, Japan, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Colombia), he developed expertise on Northeast Asia and Latin America. Notable assignments included Principal Officer in Fukuoka, Japan(1969-70), deputy director of Japanese Affairs (79-81), staff director of the Kissinger Commission on Central America (83-84), director of the Office of Terrorism and Narcotics Analysis (84-90), and political counselor in Ecuador (76-79)and Nicaragua (74-76).

He played a significant role in maintaining momentum toward the democratization of Latin America in the 1980s through his efforts in Ecuador and Central America. Ultimately a well-traveled senior inspector in the Office of Inspector General, he eventually visited over 100 countries during his career. He was awarded several superior honor, meritorious honor, and career achievement awards by the State Department and was decorated with the Order of Bolivar by the Ecuadorean government.

Born in Chicago in 1935, he emigrated to Los Angeles, graduated from Venice High School and UCLA in Political Science (with honors) in 1956. He did postgraduate work at the National University of Mexico in 1956. He married former Japanese child actress Shigeko Kawahara in 1970. Retired from the State Department in 1998, he currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he walks his dog, Deja, at Willows Park in Summerlin and debates issues confronting the USA -- losing most through "noblesse oblige"--with his less internationalist-minded friends. In his spare time, he was a precinct captain for Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary in Nevada.