Frank E. Baxter

Frank Edward Baxter (November 20, 1936 – July 15, 2025) was an American businessman and diplomat. A member of the Republican Party, he was the United States Ambassador to Uruguay from 2006 to 2009 under President George W. Bush.

Baxter died on July 15, 2025, at the age of 88.

Biography

Early life Frank E. Baxter was born in Northern California in 1936.

He is also the chairman of the board of Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools and After-School All Stars. a member of Governor Schwarzenegger's Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth, Vice chairman of the board of the Los Angeles Opera, chairman of the executive committee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He sits on the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution. He is a Trustee of the UC Berkeley Foundation and the LA Chapter of the I Have A Dream Foundation. He is a member of the Council of American Ambassadors.

He is a member of the California Club, the Los Angeles Country Club, the Siwanoy Country Club, and the University Club of New York.

His term also coincided with a period of tension over alleged CIA involvement in the assassination of Cecilia Fontana de Héber. Cecilia Fontana was from a prominent family — spouse of a National Party leader, mother of a National Party politician who was appointed to serve in the government of President of Uruguay Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou in 2020 and sister-in-law to a President of Uruguay who served in the 1960s — and had died in 1978 after drinking from a bottle of poisoned wine. Citing communications obtained from the 2010 United States diplomatic cables leak, El País reported that Baxter delivered a request for declassification of documents related to the matter from Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez to George W. Bush in April 2008. The paper further reported that Baxter had pushed back by bringing up the killing of Dan Mitrione and expressed the hope "that the poisoned wine case has definitely been laid to rest".

Baxter left the post in February 2009 and was succeeded by David D. Nelson.