February 1972 U.S. State Department

I began work for the U.S. State Department on February 14, 1972 and by the end of that year had received a prestigious award and been commended by the Director of the Passport Office, Frances G. Knight. I had also been commended by the Administrator, Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs. I would like to thank the two ladies whose signature appears below, Frances Knight and Barbara Watson for having faith in me during my time with the U.S. State Department.
The gang at the Passport Office gave me a great going away party too. You will have to remember that there were others, let's call them the "Hill Side Gang", coming to work and live in Washington, D.C. at the same time I did. It seems there was great interest in what I was doing working for such interesting people back home. What was going on at the U.S. Passport office during this time. What was making my "friends" so nervous? One name mentioned alot at the dinner table was G. Marvin Gentile, my brother's boss in the Office of Security (SY) (See Page 70 - Hashish smuggling and passport fraud : "The Brotherhood of Eternal Love" ; THE FAMILY JEWELS by The Central Intelligence Agency and F.B.I. Records - The Vault).

For more information please see the following article:

PDF Flip Book starting on Page 38 thru 78 and if you flip to page 77 you can feel the love between Ms Knight towards Ms Watson: "Hashish smuggling and passport fraud": "The brotherhood of eternal love": hearing before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-third Congress, first session, October 3, 1973"
Testimony of Miss Frances G. Knight, Director, Passport Office, Department of State
William" E. Duggan,' Chief,' Legal Division, Passport Office
John O'Dowd, attorney-adviser. Legal Division, Passport Office

Ms. Knight died September 11, 1999

The above comendation was never given to me. I got this copy from my offical record ordered in 2009.
Barbara M. Watson (1918-1983) was the first African American and the first woman to serve as an Assistant Secretary of State. She earned a B.A. from Barnard College and a law degree from New York Law School. From 1964-1966, she served as the executive director of the New York City Commission to the United Nations. She joined the State Department in 1966. In 1969 President Johnson appointed her Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs. In 1975, President Carter named her administrator for the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs. In 1980 she served as ambassador to Malaysia; she retired from that post in 1981.
Below is from the U.S. State Department African-American History Site:
Barbara M. Watson became Administrator of the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs on July 31, 1968, and served until December 31, 1974. She was re-appointed on April 7, 1977. On August 17 of that year, she became Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, and served until September 11, 1980.
Ms Watson died in 1983.

"International Women's Year National Women's Conference", November 18-21, 1977, Houston, Texas.

In 1973 I made a suggestion to improve efficiency for all Clerks of Court throughout the United States by revising a form that they used to request passport applications from the U.S. Passport Office.