Pattern of Circles: An Ambassador's Story

Dolibois, born in Luxembourg, was brought to Ohio at age 13, was stationed in Luxembourg during World War II with Army intelligence, landed a postwar job at his alma mater, Miami University of Ohio, and worked his way up to vice-president and chief development officer. Retiring after 34 years at the university, he was appointed in 1981 as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, the first naturalized American to be sent to the land of his birth in that capacity. This heartwarming, entertaining memoir tells the story of his struggles to overcome social barriers in the Akron community and to become the first member of his family to enter a university, his dramatic military assignment interrogating Nazis awaiting trial at Nuremburg (Goering, Donitz, Ribbentrop and others), his innovative fundraising, scholarship and building programs at the university, and his four productive years as ambassador in a country rich in boyhood memories. His autobiography, which he calls ``an essay in gratitude,'' re-creates a life of notable service to his community, to scholarship, to the nation. Illustrated. (Sept.)