Ambassador John Kelly - CISTP's Ambassador-in-Residence - passed away on Thursday, 15 September 2011.

Kelly was U.S. Ambassador in Beirut from 1986 to 1988 during the war years. He was Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and South Asia from 1989 to 1991, during the Gulf War and up to the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference. He served as American Ambassador in Helsinki, Finland, from 1991 to 1994.

A career diplomat, John Kelly was four times a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and also served in the Department of Defense as well as overseas assignments in Turkey, Thailand, France Lebanon, and Finland.

Kelly was on the Boards of the Lebanese American University and the Finnish-American Chamber of Commerce of the Southeast. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American-Turkish Council, the Middle East Institute, and the Southern Center for International Studies. He was listed in the Who's Who.

Ambassador Kelly was an Ambassador-in-Residence at Georgia Tech's Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy (CISTP) and presented several lectures over the years. He will be missed.