Larry Leon Palmer

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Ambassador Larry Palmer

Larry Leon Palmer (born c. 1948) is a United States diplomat and a former United States Ambassador to Honduras.

Larry Palmer was born in Augusta, Georgia. He graduated from Emory University with a B.A. in 1970 and completed his graduate training at Texas Southern University (M.Ed., African History, 1973) and Indiana University at Bloomington (Ed. D., Higher Education Administration and African Studies, 1978).

Prior to joining the United States Foreign Service, Palmer served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia, West Africa (1971-1973), as assistant director of financial aid at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (1973-1974), as a professor of history at Cuttington College in Suakoko, Liberia (1974-1976), and at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, North Carolina (1978-1981).

Palmer entered the Foreign Service in 1982. He served as vice consul in the Dominican Republic (1982-1984), and then as personnel officer in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Asuncion, Paraguay, from 1984 to 1986. He worked in the State Department as staff assistant to the Assistant Secretary for African Affairs from 1986-87 and then served as counselor for administration in Freetown, Sierra Leone from 1987 to 1989.

In 1989, Palmer became a Pearson Fellow, serving as assistant to the president of the University of Texas at El Paso. His portfolio was advancing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), creating faculty and student exchange opportunities in universities throughout Mexico, and serving as university consultant for International Affairs. At the end of two years as a Pearson Fellow, Palmer left to serve as personnel officer in Seoul, South Korea, (1991-1994), and later served as counselor for administration in the Dominican Republic (1994-1998).

From 1998-1999, He attended the Senior Seminar. He arrived in Quito to begin a tour as Deputy Chief of Mission in August 1999. He finished his tour in Quito as Chargé d’Affaires In July 2002.

Palmer was sworn in as United States Ambassador to Honduras on September 9, 2002, by Secretary of State Colin Powell and delivered his credentials to the Honduran President Ricardo Maduro on October 9, 2002.