Ridgway, Rozanne Lejeanne (1935–)
Ridgway, Rozanne Lejeanne (1935–)
American diplomat and ambassador. Name variations: Roz Ridgway. Born Aug 22, 1935, in St. Paul, Minnesota; dau. of H. Clay Ridgway and Ethel Rozanne (Cote) Ridgway; Hamline University in Minnesota, BA, 1957; m. Theodore (Ted) Deming (officer in the Coast Guard), 1983.
Entered Foreign Service (1957); landed a position as a class 4 political officer in Oslo, Norway (1967), working for Ambassador Margaret Tibbetts, then became a desk officer for Ecuador; named deputy assistant secretary in Bahamas and, within a year, had helped rewrite postwar international fisheries laws as they applied to US; also negotiated bilateral fishing treaties with 14 nations, earning her informal title, "Lobster Lady of the Bahamas"; became ambassador to Finland; returned to US as a counselor in the State Department (1980), then became ambassador to East Germany; named assistant secretary for European and Canadian Affairs (1985), which led to her becoming the 1st woman to actively participate in a presidential summit when she took part in Geneva conference between Reagan and Gorbachev (Nov 1985); retired (1989); became president of Atlantic Council (1995).
See also Women in World History.