Francis Joseph Meehan

Francis Joseph Meehan (14 February 1924 – 7 May 2022) was an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to several of the Eastern Bloc states during his career. His final posting was as United States Ambassador to East Germany.

Early life Meehan was born in the United States city of East Orange, New Jersey, to Scottish parents, who were staying in the United States for a short period. He would move to Scotland when his homesick mother returned home, growing up in the Scottish shipbuilding town of Clydebank, situated west along the River Clyde from Glasgow.

Clydebank, as a centre of shipbuilding during World War II, was a major target for the Luftwaffe, and a teenage Meehan would help with the clear up after bombing raids. He graduated in 1945 from the University of Glasgow with a Master of Arts degree in history. He was, by this time, a fluent German speaker.

His birth in the United States rendered him an American citizen, and as such he was drafted in 1945 for military service, with his postings being to Fontainebleau for training, then onto Allied-occupied Germany. His next posting was as an administrative assistant at the Economic Cooperation Administration in Washington, D.C., serving from 1948 to 1951, at which point he formally joined the United States Foreign Service. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Vienna from 1975 to 1977 and then in Bonn from 1977 to 1979. His posting to Poland was particularly eventful; he was visiting Washington, D.C., on business when Wojciech Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland, his return to Poland required the United States Embassy to smuggle Meehan across the now sealed border hidden in the back of a van. BBC Scotland produced a 30-minute documentary about Meehan's career and some of his thoughts on the current political climate in both Washington DC and Moscow; this program aired on 3 April 2017.

Meehan died in Helensburgh on 7 May 2022, at the age of 98.