Robert Jordan

My father started his career in the 1930s, working in the oil fields in Maracaibo, Venezuela. He then enlisted in the Navy in World War II, surviving the invasion of Normandy. After the war we moved to Peru when I was three-years-old. My experience there shaped much of the rest of my life.

We lived in a tiny seaside oil camp named Talara, north of Lima. My parents collected native pieces during our time there, including three painted drums with animal skin heads. These drums symbolize that period in my life.  After returning to the U.S., our dinner table conversation routinely featured tales of Peru, lapsing into Spanish phrases, with commentary about revolutions, oil markets, and daily life in Talara.

My father went on to other international jobs, with a stint in pre-Gaddafi Libya, then Hong Kong, and a later career with USAID including four war-torn years in Vietnam. I pursued my international interests as well, studying French and Russian in college and then in uniform as an officer with the Naval Security Group. My parents passed down the three Peruvian drums to me, and the drums moved with me through decades of travel.

My attraction to international affairs came full circle in 2001 when President George W. Bush asked me to be his ambassador to Saudi Arabia. I took my post a month after the attacks of September 11. After my government service, I later returned to the Middle East to run my law firm’s practice in Dubai. Now retired, I view the three drums every day through the lens of my early childhood dreams.