This Dayton native is now ambassador to Ireland, and he’s coming here Monday

A Dayton native turned active United States ambassador will speak to Vandalia senior citizens Monday.

Reece Smyth, the U.S. ambassador to Ireland, will make his way to the Dayton area to speak at the Vandalia Senior Citizens Center at 1 p.m. on Tionda Drive.

He will be there to answer questions from senior citizens.

Smyth is the current acting ambassador to Ireland after the departure of the former Ambassador Kevin O’Malley. He arrived in Dublin to be the Deputy of Mission in September 2016.

Prior to his arrival in Dublin, he was the counselor for Political and Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, according to the embassy’s website.

He has been the deputy director of the State Department’s Office of UN Political Affairs, action officer in the NATO-Russia, senior economic officer in the State Department’s Office of Arabian Peninsula Affairs, and a watch officer in the Operations Center, according to the website.

Smyth did overseas tours that include Skopje, Sarajevo, and Islamabad.

This will be Smyth’s first time back in the U.S. since arriving in Ireland in 2016. He will speak in Washington, D.C., this weekend to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day.

Before Smyth joined the Foreign Service in 1999, he worked in the private sector as a senior trade consultant in London and New York.

He is a graduate of Baylor University and received master’s degrees from Princeton and the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Smyth grew up in Houston, but was born in Dayton and attended Helke Elementary School in Vandalia. He has an aunt that still resides in the area.

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