Glenn W. Ferguson, the third president of the merged RFE/RL Inc. from 1978 to 1982, passed away in late December.
A former ambassador to Kenya who also had served as the first director of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), Ferguson headed three universities before succeeding Sig Mickelson as head of RFE/RL Inc. After leaving the Radios, he served as president of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, and as president of the American University of Paris.
“Ferguson’s time in office was one of change for the Radios,” said RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin. “Ferguson oversaw the company’s streamlining of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty into a single administrative structure. He guided RFE/RL through one of its greatest challenges — the bombing of RFE/RL headquarters in Munich on Feb. 21, 1981.
“Throughout his tenure and by all accounts, Ferguson led the organization with a deep, sincere commitment to the people of RFE/RL and the cause of freedom and democracy they served.”