Longtime State Department spokesman, diplomat Richard Boucher, dies at 73

Richard Boucher, who served for more than a decade as spokesperson for the State Department and Deputy Secretary of State for Public Affairs, died at the age of 73

Washington – Richard Boucher, who served for more than a decade as spokesperson for the State Department and Deputy Secretary of State for Public Affairs, died at 73 years. He died on Friday at his home in Northern Virginia after a battle with the spindle cell sarcoma, a form of aggressive cancer, according to his son.

Boucher had been the face of American foreign policy on the podium of the State Department through administrations in the 1990s and early 2000s, starting in the presidency of George HW Bush and continuing with the terms of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in power. Boucher was the spokesperson for Secretaries of State James Baker, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

In a career that took him from the Peace Corps through Africa and Asia as well as Washington, Boucher also served as a US Consul General Hong Kong during the transfer of the 1997 territory from Great Britain to China, and then used the skills he acquired to help orchestrate the end of the spy plane crisis in the United States in early 2001.

After leaving the employment of the spokesman, Boucher became assistant secretary of state for the South Asia and Central Asia and was then an ambassador of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The retired journalist of the Veteran CBS, Charles Wolfson, who worked with butcher for years, praised him as an effective spokesperson for the State Department but also a professional and friend colleague.

“He was a superb diplomat, an excellent spokesperson and an even better human being,” said Wolfson.