Thomas P Melady

Thomas P. Melady, a scholar and college president who served as a U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and was an informal liaison between Catholic leadership and top federal policymakers, died Jan. 6 2014 at his home in Washington. He was 86. Dr. Melady (pronounced muh-LAY-dee) began his career in the 1950s as an authority on emerging independence movements in Africa. He served as U.S. ambassador to the African country of Burundi before becoming ambassador to Uganda in 1972, when the country was controlled by strongman Idi Amin. In February 1973, Dr. Melady was recalled as ambassador as a signal of protest when Amin repeatedly criticized the policies of President Richard M. Nixon in Vietnam. The United States did not reopen its embassy in Uganda until 1979, after Amin had been deposed. After serving as a president of Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, Dr. Melady reentered the world of diplomacy in 1989, when he was named ambassador to the Vatican by President George H.W. Bush. Thomas Patrick Melady was born March 4, 1927, in Norwich, Conn. After serving in the Army, he became one of the first members of his family to attend college, graduating in 1950 from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He received a master’s degree in 1952 and a doctorate in 1954, both in political science from Catholic University. Dr. Melady had academic appointments at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and other colleges before he was named ambassador to Burundi in 1969. He was executive vice president of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia before serving as president of Sacred Heart in Fairfield, Conn., from 1976 to 1986. Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Margaret Badum Melady, the former president of the American University of Rome, of Washington; two daughters, Christina Melady of Paris and Monica Melady Micklos of Washington; a brother; two sisters; and seven grandchildren. Since 2002, Dr. Melady had been affiliated with the Washington-based Institute of World Politics, where he taught a course on the art of diplomacy.