Former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, Dies at 90

Former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambasador Walter Carrington, is dead. He died on Tuesday in the United States. He was aged 90.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Dr. Arese, in a short statement on Wednesday night.

She wrote: “It is with a heavy and broken heart but with gratitude to God for his life of selfless humanity that I announce the passing of my beloved husband Walter “Carrington, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and Senegal. He passed away peacefully surrounded by loved ones at the age of 90yrs old on Tuesday August 11th, 2020. Further announcements will be made shortly.

“Walter was a loving husband, father, grandfather, cousin, uncle, friend and in-law.

“Ralph Waldo Emerson said…It is not the length of life but the depth of life.

Walter was fortunate, his life had both length and depth.”

Carrington, who was appointed as US ambassador to Nigeria in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, played a major role in helping to enthrone democracy in Nigeria.

Born in 1931, the retired diplomat was a civil rights activist during his university days at Harvard University. Carrington was the first student elected to the National Board of Directors of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). A graduate of Harvard College (1952) and Harvard Law School (1955), Carrington practiced law in Massachusetts and served on the three-member Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination becoming, at the age of 27, the youngest person to be appointed a commissioner in the state’s history.