Jay A. Burgess writes: “On Dec. 4, I was awarded the Medal of the Order of the Madara Horseman, First Class, by Bulgarian President Rumen Radev. The presentation was made by Ambassador Tihomir Stoytchev at the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington, D.C. This medal, one of Bulgaria’s very highest awards bestowed on foreign citizens, was given for my efforts for more than 40 years in helping develop U.S.-Bulgarian economic and commercial relations. Previously in my career, I received similar presidential medals from Hungary (Officers Cross, Order of Merit, 2005); Poland (Officers Cross, Order of Merit, 2012); and Romania (Order of the Star of Romania, 2016), as well as the Czech Republic, Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ highest distinction for foreigners, the Silver Medal of Jan Masaryk in 2016. After a 40-year career at the U.S. Department of Commerce working on European affairs, I retired in early 2016 as director for Europe, with USDOC trade policy and business development responsibility for 39 European countries; and I occasionally served as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia. It was a highly stimulating, challenging, and rewarding career, whichI thoroughly enjoyed. In some respects, it was like I never left the political science curriculum at Brown. It was very gratifying to see old teammates, fraternity brothers, and classmates at our 50th Reunion in 2016.”
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Class of 1966