Remembering ‘The Ambassador.’ University of Miami professor, diplomat Ambler Moss dies at 85
Ambler Moss Jr., who helped establish a graduate international studies path at the University of Miami, negotiated the United States-Panama Canal Treaties and served as an ambassador to Panama under two U.S. presidents, died at his Coral Gables home on Dec. 27.
Moss was 85, at the home he had shared with his wife of 52 years, Serena, since they moved to Miami from Panama in 1982.
He was fondly called “The Ambassador” or simply, “Ambassador” by admirers at UM.
“You’d cast him in your movie if you wanted to show diplomats as good guys,” said Joseph B. Treaster, a professor at the University of Miami’s School of Communication and a former reporter and foreign correspondent for The New York Times. “He was stylish. He was honest. He could talk with everyone. People liked working with him. He got things done.”
And, like the ingredients-rich paella dish, for which he was renowned by family and friends, Moss got things done by tapping his myriad skills and international career appointments.
Panama Canal treaties
Moss was involved with the negotiation of the U.S.-Panama Canal treaties and their ratification from 1977 to 1978 under President Jimmy Carter.
The negotiations over the 51 mile waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and divides North and South America were difficult. Controversial.
Carter’s stance on shifting control of the canal from the United States to Panama, to take hold after 1999, was unpopular with many domestically in the late-1970s. But the president did so out of a commitment to regional stability and human rights, Moss felt.
When his former boss was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for championing human rights and peaceful solutions to global conflicts from the Middle East to Latin America in 2002, Moss spoke to the Miami Herald about Carter’s determination and how it jibed with his own views of diplomacy.
“He talks about joining in with the international community and not blustering along alone. That’s not Jimmy Carter’s way of doing things. Jimmy Carter’s way is of persuasion,” Moss said. At the time, Moss was the director of the University of Miami’s North-South Center.
Diplomatic tactics
When President Barack Obama first campaigned for president in 2008 he was criticized by members of both parties, including rival Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton. Obama had expressed that he would be willing to meet with nefarious foreign leaders such as Cuba’s Raúl Castro and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Moss understood Obama’s diplomatic tactic. “That shows, to my way of thinking, that the mainstream of foreign policy is that you do better to open dialogue with your enemies than to refuse to speak to them until they fulfill an impossible set of preconditions,” Moss told the Herald.
Moss served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations during the Panama Canal Treaty. He also served as an ambassador to Panama from 1978 until 1982, appointed successively by Carter and President Ronald Reagan. He added membership with the U.S.-Panama Consultative Committee from 1978 to 1982 and repeated the post from 1995 to 2001 during Bill Clinton’s administration while teaching at UM.
Previously, as a member of the career Foreign Service, Moss served in Spain, in the U.S. Delegation to the Organization of American States, and as Spanish Desk Officer in the Department of State.
Moss had received decorations from the governments of Catalonia, Spain, Panama and Argentina.
“His knowledge of Catalan culture is the best in the world,” said Joaquin Roy, the director of the European Union center at the University of Miami, who first met Moss in 1967.
In addition to Catalan, Moss was fluent in English, Spanish and French. He was also an avid reader and author.
Joined the University of Miami
In 1984, Moss joined UM as a professor of international studies and was the founding dean of the graduate school of international studies, a position he held until 1994. He also directed the Dante B. Fascell North-South Center from 1984 to 2004 and he championed fellow professors at UM, often luring people of distinction to the South Florida institution.
“Thirty-three years ago, Ambassador Ambler Moss invited, enticed, in short, recruited me away from the United Nations to the University of Miami to work at his newly-invigorated Graduate School of International Studies,” said Richard Weisskoff, chairman of the Department of International Studies, in an email to the Herald. “Only Ambler could have assembled academicians of such varied fields and coached them in teamwork to eventually create the North-South Center at UM which graduated hundreds of PhDs now teaching and working in government and business throughout the world.”
Moss came by “The Ambassador” title through, well, diplomacy.
“Within the University of Miami, Ambler was always ‘The Ambassador,’ turning conflict into friendship, melting divisiveness, and bringing patience into the University of Miami with even the most casual encounter with colleagues and visitors,” Weisskoff said.
“I went to him as a reporter for insights,” Treaster added. “He was always on target. When I joined the university, he helped me understand the place.”
Moss was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on Sept. 1, 1937. He received his bachelor’s from Yale University in 1960 and his law degree in 1970 from the George Washington University. He put the latter to use locally as counsel to Greenberg Traurig in Miami from 1994 to 2010. Moss was also an officer in the United States Navy and a life member of the American Legion and Navy League and he was on the steering committee for the first Summit of the Americas in Miami that was held in December 1994.
Family man
But, above all, Moss was a father and family man.
“My dad and I spoke on the phone every morning since I moved to Colorado 13 years ago,” his daughter Serena M. Moss told the Herald. “There was never a guessing game when it came to his passions, as his heart directly dictated his life. The purity of his value systems was unparalleled and his sense of humor was infectious.
“During our daily calls, his favorite piece of advice was generally ‘keep calm and carry on,’ which so embodied the way he dealt with distress and shenanigans,” she said. “He was and will continue to be my greatest teacher, best friend and inspiration.”
Survivors, services
Moss’ survivors include his wife Serena Welles Moss; their children Ambler H. Moss III, Benjamin S. Moss, Serena M. Moss and Nicholas G.O. Moss; and grandchildren, Slater, Acadia and Oliver Moss.
Services are not scheduled at this time.
