To many, Ambler Moss did not come across as a high-ranking diplomat. He was approachable, funny, and endearing.
But engage him in a conversation about world affairs, and Moss could easily navigate the various issues at play in either English, Spanish, French, or Catalan, colleagues said.
A professor and dean of Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Miami after a storied career in the U.S. State Department—both in the foreign service and as an ambassador to Panama—Moss passed away Dec. 27 at his Coral Gables home. He was 85.
In his 37 years at the University, faculty members said Moss elevated its ties to Latin America and the world and helped entice students to join the foreign service.
“He had worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations at the State Department and served the U.S. and its interests with sobriety and balance, as well as a view to the long term,” said David Abraham, professor of law emeritus, who specializes in Europe, immigration, and the political economy and often conversed with Moss as a colleague. “He brought those same skills and approaches to the University.”
Moss came to the University in 1984 from Panama, at the encouragement of his college roommate from Yale, Edward Thaddeus “Tad” Foote II, who, as president of the University of Miami, wanted to expand the University’s global reach.
Soon thereafter, Moss became the founding dean of the Graduate School of International Studies. And since he had earned an interdisciplinary undergraduate degree at Yale with a global focus, Moss wanted to emulate the same type of education at a more advanced level for graduate students in Miami. Richard Weisskoff had taught at Yale and was lured by Moss’ creative vision and his kindness. So, he left the United Nations to teach international economics at the U.
“He was interested in peace and in bringing the world into his students’ lives and that’s what Ambler did,” said Weisskoff, who now chairs the Department of International Studies at the College of Arts and Sciences and served as an economist at the Graduate School of International Studies. “He opened the University up to the world.”
Moss also was director of the University’s Dante B. Fascell North-South Center from 1984 to 2003. Under his leadership, the center provided scholarships to international students and produced research about a range of inter-American issues, like democracy, trade and economic policy, sustainable development, migration, narcotics trafficking, security, and business and labor issues.
“Students came from all over Latin America to study here and then many of them went back to teach or to work in government or in business—it became an international center for students,” Weisskoff added.
Yet before moving to Coral Gables, Moss helped negotiate of the U.S.-Panama Canal Treaties and their ratification and was U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to Panama from 1978 until 1982, after being appointed by both President Jimmy Carter and President Ronald Reagan. Moss also served as a member of the U.S.-Panama Consultative Committee from 1978 to 1982 and from 1995 to 2001. Prior to that, as a member of the foreign service, he served in Spain, in the U.S. Delegation to the Organization of American States, and as Spanish Desk Officer in the U.S. Department of State.
During Moss’ early years in the service in 1967, he made a trip to his former Maryland boarding school, where he met Joaquín Roy. At the time, Roy was teaching at the Gilman School, but later, as University faculty members, the two became close friends and colleagues. They often shared research projects and participated in conferences together.
“He looked like your typical American diplomat, but then he turned around and started talking to me in Catalan,” said Roy, the Jean Monnet chair of international studies, and director of the European Union Center of Excellence, referring to the language of Spain’s northeastern region. “His knowledge of Catalan was astronomical.”
Roy said Moss was an unusual government official in that he truly knew and understood the culture of Spain and Europe, as well as Latin America. This helped him bridge the gaps between different constituencies because he pinpointed what could truly improve relations between the United States and those countries, Roy noted.
“He was not your typical diplomat trying to sell the United States as this big power,” said Roy. “He was really trying to understand other countries, and if he had to criticize his own country, he did.”
Andy Gomez, a leading Cuba scholar who took over as dean of the Graduate School of International Studies several years after Moss stepped down to focus on teaching, said Moss was a unique scholar, as well as a great mentor to him.
“Because he served as an ambassador to Panama, and in the U.S. Department of State, Ambler was able to teach his students both practice and theory, which is very rare and very needed in international studies,” said Gomez, a former fellow, assistant provost, and co-founding director of the University’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies.
“He was very well known in the consular corps in Miami, which helped place many students in internships in the consular offices and at the U.S. State Department, too,” Gomez said.
His friendship with Foote—whose wife Roberta “Bosey” Fulbright Foote was the daughter of the late U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas—also led Moss to encourage many students to apply for U.S. Fulbright Scholarships to travel abroad. The program thrived under his leadership at the University, Gomez indicated.
But aside from teaching and diplomacy, Moss was also a lawyer. He earned his law degree in 1970 from George Washington University, and before that he served as an officer in the United States Navy, in their submarine division. From 1972 to 1976, he was a resident attorney with the law firm of Coudert Brothers in Brussels (Belgium) and practiced in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, European anti-trust law, international sales transactions, and international franchising transactions. In addition, he was of counsel to the law firm Greenberg Traurig in Miami from 1994 to 2010.
Moss is survived by his wife Serena; his daughter Serena; and sons Ambler, Benjamin, and Nicholas; along with grandchildren Slater, Acadia, and Oliver.
