Joseph J. Jova

Joseph John Jova (1916–1993) was an American diplomat.

He served as the United States Ambassador to Honduras from 1965 to 1969, the United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States from 1969 to 1973, and the United States Ambassador to Mexico from 1973 to 1977.

Early life and education Joseph Jova was born in Browston, five miles north of Newburgh, New York, to a prominent European-Caribbean family. His grandfather was a major landowner in colonial Cuba and his grandmother from a New York French family involved in the sugar industry, and later became a prominent brick manufacturer. He attended boarding school in Coral Gables, Florida and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1938.

Career After graduation, he worked for the United Fruit Company in Guatemala.

He served as President of the Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C. for twelve years after his retirement as ambassador.

Personal life He was the older brother of architect Henri Jova.

He met and married his British-born wife, the former Pamela Johnson, in Basra in 1949. They had two sons and one daughter.

He died of a thoracic aortic aneurysm in 1993.