Ambassador

Biography

Victor Ashe

Victor Ashe was nominated by President Bush to be Ambassador to the Republic of Poland on April 8, 2004, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 21, 2004. He was sworn in on June 23, 2004, in Washington, DC. Ambassador Ashe has visited all 16 provinces of Poland three times and over 185 Polish cities and towns since arriving in Poland in July, 2004. Ambassador Ashe is the most senior American bilateral Ambassador serving in Europe today. Ambassador Ashe is the 24th American Ambassador to Poland and is the second longest serving Ambassador.  Ambassador Biddle is the longest serving Ambassador. Ambassador Ashe has submitted his resignation as Ambassador to Poland effective September 26, 2009.

Amb. Ashe’s history of public service includes serving 31 years in Tennessee state and city elective offices. In December 2003, Amb. Ashe completed an unprecedented 16 years as Mayor of Knoxville, the longest mayoral tenure in the city’s 218-year history.

Amb. Ashe was born January 1, 1945, in Knoxville, Tennessee and attended public schools there. He graduated from the Hotchkiss School, in Lakeville, Connecticut, in 1963 and from Yale University with a BA in History in 1967. He received his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1974. Ashe is an attorney and licensed to practice law in Tennessee.

In 1965, Mr. Ashe served as an intern in the office of Congressman Bill Brock, where he helped write a tax sharing for education bill. In 1967, he was a staff assistant in the office of then-Senator Howard Baker.

Amb. Ashe was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1968, at age 23. In 1975 he was elected to the State Senate, where he served for nine years. From 1967 to 1973, Amb. Ashe served as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Reserves.

From 1985-1987, under President Reagan, Mr. Ashe served as the Executive Director of the Americans Outdoors Commission chaired by then-Governor (and now U.S. Senator) Lamar Alexander. Mr. Ashe was elected Knoxville’s mayor in November, 1987.

As Mayor of Knoxville, Mr. Ashe established a sister city relationship with Chelm in Poland and led two delegations to the city, one in 1997 and the other in 2000. Mr. Ashe also led a delegation of U.S. mayors to Israel in 1995 and to Uganda in 2003 on HIV/AIDS.

Mr. Ashe improved Knoxville’s financial picture by increasing the fund balance and improving the bond rating for the city. Greenways were substantially increased from 5 to 34 miles when he left office. He led the effort for waterfront development in his city and built a new state-of-the-art convention center to boost tourism. Mr. Ashe established a police civilian review board, and in January 2004 he received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission’s chair award for his work on behalf of improving race relations. He also made historic preservation a theme of his tenure.

Amb. Ashe was awarded on October 14, 2004 the Cornelius Amory Pugsley Medal at the local level. This award, from the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration in association with the National Park Foundation, was given in recognition of his work on parks and greenways while he was Mayor of Knoxville.

In 1995, Mr. Ashe was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He received the Distinguished Public Service Award in 2003. He also served as President of the Tennessee Municipal League. As a leader in both organizations he led a bipartisan effort to curb unfunded federal mandates.

He was appointed by both Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton to the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.

President Clinton nominated Ambassador Ashe to the AmeriCorps Board of Directors and the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment.

Amb. Ashe is married to the former Joan Plumlee and they have two children, J. Victor, 19, and Martha, 16. J. Victor will be a sophomore at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN this fall. Martha will be in 11th grade at Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT. in September, 2009. Mrs. Ashe was an elementary school teacher for 13 years.

Amb. Ashe is an avid hiker. He also enjoys as hobbies traveling and reading history books and mysteries.

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