J. Christopher Stevens


John Christopher Stevens was an American career diplomat and lawyer who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Libya from May 22, 2012 to September 11, 2012. Stevens was killed when the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked by members of Ansar al-Sharia on September 11–12, 2012.
Stevens was the eighth U.S. Ambassador to be killed while in office.

Early life and education

Stevens was born on April 18, 1960, in Grass Valley, California, the eldest of three siblings born to Jan S. Stevens, a California Assistant Attorney General, and his wife Mary J. Stevens, from a West Coast family of French, Swedish and Chinook ancestry. Stevens was raised in Northern California and had two younger siblings, Anne and Thomas.
Stevens' parents divorced in 1975, and both remarried. He had a half-sister, Hilary, from his father's second marriage. His mother, a cellist, joined the Marin Symphony Orchestra, and in 1976 married Robert Commanday, a music critic with the San Francisco Chronicle.
Stevens was an AFS Intercultural Programs exchange student in Spain during summer of 1977, and graduated from Piedmont High School in 1978. He earned BA degree in history in 1982 at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. From 1983 to 1985, he taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. He graduated with JD degree from University of California, Hastings College of Law in 1989, and received MS degree from the National War College in 2010.

Career

Lawyer

Prior to joining United States Foreign Service, Stevens was an international trade attorney based in Washington, D.C. He was admitted as an active member of State Bar of California on January 26, 1990; he went on inactive status on August 1, 1991, and remained an inactive member for the remainder of his career.

U.S. Foreign Service

Stevens joined United States Foreign Service in 1991. His early overseas assignments included: deputy principal officer and political section chief in Jerusalem, political officer in Damascus, consular/political officer in Cairo, and consular/economic officer in Riyadh. In Washington, Stevens served as Director of Office of Multilateral Nuclear and Security Affairs, Pearson Fellow with Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senator Richard Lugar, special assistant to Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Iran desk officer, and staff assistant in Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
He had served in Libya twice previously: as Deputy Chief of Mission and as Special Representative to National Transitional Council during Libyan revolution. He arrived in Tripoli in May 2012 as US Ambassador to Libya.
Stevens spoke English, French, and some Arabic.

Death

During the 2012 Benghazi attack, a fire was set against the main consulate building with three Americans inside—Stevens, Sean Smith, and a security officer. According to U.S. officials, the security officer escaped and the staff found Smith dead. However, the staff were unable to locate Stevens before being driven from the building under small-arms fire. Local civilians found Stevens and brought him to the Benghazi Medical Centre in a state of cardiac arrest. Medical personnel tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at about 2 a.m. local time on September 12, 2012. Later reports suggested that the attack was coordinated and planned in advance, with any protests either coincidental or possibly diversionary. Libyan president Muhammad Magariaf blamed elements of Ansar al-Sharia for the killing, linking them to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Libyan officials suggested that it might have been a revenge attack mounted by loyalists who were defeated in the Libyan Civil War the previous year.
The surviving Americans were taken to a safe house. A rescue squad consisting of eight U.S. military or former military was sent from Tripoli, the capital. They were ambushed and the safe house came under attack. Two more Americans died, including one sent from Tripoli; several were wounded. Later reports identified the victims as Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty, both former Navy SEALs working as security and intelligence contractors.
Stevens is buried in New Elm Ridge Cemetery in Grass Valley, California.