William Henry Luers (born May 15, 1929 in Springfield, Illinois) was a diplomat and former United States Ambassador to Venezuela (1978-82) and Czechoslovakia (1983-86).[1] He has served as president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for thirteen years and as president of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) (1999-2009).[2]
Luers served four years in the United States Navy before graduating from Hamilton College. He then gained an M.A. from Columbia University. He did graduate work in Philosophy at Northwestern University before entering the Foreign Service.
During his long diplomatic career, Luers held various posts in Italy, Germany and the Soviet Union. He was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe (1977-1978) and for Inter-American Affairs (1975-1977) in the Department of State before being posted as US Ambassador to Venezuela (1978-1982) and Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1983-1986).
Luers has lectured at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, at George Washington University in Washington, DC, the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey in 1982-1983. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from Hamilton College and Marlboro College.
Luers is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served on the boards of The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The National Museum of Natural History, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the Rubin Museum of Art. He is also chairman of the Advisory Board of The Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and of The Harriman Institute at Columbia University.
He speaks on foreign affairs, diplomacy, the UN, and the arts, and has been widely published on foreign policy issues. He speaks Russian, Spanish and Italian.
Luers is married to Wendy Woods Luers, founder and president of The Foundation for Civil Society and the Project on Justice in Times of Transition. He has four children and two stepchildren.