Hume Horan

Hume Alexander Horan (August 13, 1934 – July 22, 2004) was an American diplomat and ambassador to five countries, who has been described as "perhaps the most accomplished Arabic linguist to serve in the U.S. Foreign Service."

Early life Horan was born to Margaret Robinson Hume and Abdullah Entezam in 1934 in Washington, D.C. His mother came from a well-to-do family; her grandfather served as a diplomat in President Abraham Lincoln's administration, her own father had been the mayor of Georgetown, and Stephen Vincent Benét was a cousin. Entezam was an Iranian diplomat. Horan's parents divorced just three years after his birth (though they had been married for over a decade), and Margaret Hume subsequently married a newspaperman named Harold Horan.

In 1954 Hume Horan joined the U.S. Army, leaving two years later to study at Harvard College. In 1960 he graduated from Harvard with a degree in American History 1987 Diplomat-in-residence at Georgetown University 1987–1988 Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (ended by order from King Fahd) 1992- Ambassador to Ivory Coast Diplomat-in-residence at Howard University (-1998) Director of African training program at the Foreign Service Institute

Later life Following the American-led invasion of Iraq, Horan worked for six months as a senior counselor on tribal and religious issues for the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003. During this time he traveled across Iraq with little security, and was to meet Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani before a protest in Najaf by Muqtada al-Sadr prevented it. He was referred to by CPA head L. Paul Bremer as his "pet Bedouin," and was rewarded for his work with the Distinguished Public Service Award by the Department of Defense. He died at Inova Fairfax Hospital in 2004 after battling prostate cancer.

Personal life Horan's first wife was Nancy Reinert Horan, and they had two sons and a daughter. After a divorce he remarried Lori Shoemaker, who gave birth to a son, Michael Horan, and daughter, Elizabeth Horan.

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