Charles W. Adair Jr., 91; Former U.S. Ambassador to Panama and Uruguay
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Charles W. Adair Jr., 91, a former U.S. ambassador to Panama and Uruguay, died Jan. 22 at a retirement home in Falls Church, Va. The cause of death was not announced.
A longtime foreign service officer, Adair was ambassador to Panama from 1965 to 1969.
In 1966, Panamanian students demonstrating against the United States threw a milk carton filled with red paint, striking Adair in the back. But before his departure, he was able to rebuild relations between the two nations and initiate talks that ultimately led to the return of the Panama Canal to Panamanian authority.
Adair, who served as ambassador to Uruguay from 1969 to 1972, was born in Xenia, Ohio. He was a college boxer at the University of Wisconsin and sang with his brother’s dance band.
He joined the State Department in the 1930s and was stationed in Mexico. He spent much of World War II posted in India.
In the 1960s, he was appointed deputy secretary general of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation in Paris.
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