Otto Rathsman

Per Otto Gustaf Rathsman (14 August 1917 – 15 June 1986) was a Swedish diplomat.

Early life Rathsman was born on 14 August 1917 in Ljung, Linköping Municipality, Sweden, the son of vicar Otto Rathsman and his wife Sara (née Svensson). He passed studentexamen in Linköping in 1936 and received a Candidate of Law degree from Uppsala University in 1939 before becoming an attaché at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1940.

The year after, Rathsman became Director at the Swedish Foreign Ministry and in 1959 he became embassy counsellor in New Delhi. and he was ambassador in Nairobi with dual accreditation to Bujumbura, Dar es Salaam, Kampala, Kigali, and Lusaka from 1964 to 1966. He was then ambassador in Caracas, also accredited to Santo Domingo and Port of Spain from 1966 to 1970. After that he was ambassador in Bucharest from 1970 to 1973, Baghdad from 1973 to 1975, consul-general in São Paulo from 1976 to 1980 and consul-general in San Francisco from 1980 to 1982. Before retiring, Rathsman was mediator in the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission in Korea from 1 April 1982 to 31 March 1983 with the rank of major general.

Personal life Rathsman was married twice. He was married the first time 1944–1954 to Ulla Wennerberg (born 1921), daughter of John Wennerberg and Karin (née Cederberg). He married a second time in 1955 with Gunilla Beskow (born 1927), daughter of the engineer Fritz Beskow and Rut (née Mellander). On 21 July 1986, he was interred at Skogskyrkogården in Stockholm.

Awards and decorations