Alfred Leroy "Roy" Atherton Jr. (November 22, 1921 – October 30, 2002) was a United States Foreign Service Officer and diplomat.

[3] He was a Middle East expert who helped in the negotiations that led to the 1978 Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt.

Atherton joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1947, and served in Stuttgart, Bonn, Damascus, and Aleppo.

[12] He served as United States Ambassador to Egypt[13] from 1979 to 1983, where he was responsible for the largest U.S. mission in the world, with a staff of 872 Americans and 500 Egyptians.

After the Camp David Accord many staff were dispatched to help administer the $1.5 billion a year in military assistance.

The previous year he took on an added task heading up a fellowship program for promising future leaders from the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand to study in the United States by the name of the Harkness Fellowships, a program run by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based philanthropic foundation established by Anna M.

[22] He is buried at Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington D.C. along with his wife, Betty Wylie [23] who died on February 18, 2009.