Robert H. Phinny

Robert H. Phinny (1921–2000) is a non-career appointee who served as the American Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Swaziland from 1982 until 1984.

That puts him one small step ahead of Robert H. Phinny, 61, President Reagan's unfortunate choice as ambassador to Swaziland, also in southern Africa.

hearing last July 15 (attended and conducted by a single senator, Republican Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas), Phinny seemed utterly bewildered about the ancient kingdom to which he was being assigned.

He misstated administration policy on at least one important point, implying support for South Africa's controversial attempt to transfer to Swazi control 2,000 square miles of land and the black people who live on it.

Phinny told the “Senate Foreign Relations Committee that his qualifications for the job included a ‘commitment to public service, having been involved with the Public Library Foundation, the Boy Scouts of America, the Rotary Club, the United Fund and the local Chamber of Commerce.’”[4] Phinny attended Mercersburg Academy, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Babson Institute.