An academic-turned-ambassador died of congestive heart failure in his New Braunfels, Texas, home, according to his family.
Sarah Krueger said her 86-year-old father, Robert Krueger, died Saturday morning with his wife by his side.
Krueger was a promising professor for Duke University, the University of Texas at Austin, Rice University, Oxford University and Texas State University, according to a WSAZ report.
He was elected as a Democrat in 1975 to represent Texas’ 21st congressional district. Krueger served two congressional terms before being appointed Ambassador to Mexico by former President James Carter in 1979.
The ambassadorship ended when Carter left office in 1981 at which time Krueger resumed teaching.
Politics must have got under his skin, because he ran for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission in 1990 and won. He held that position for two years until Texas Governor Ann Richards replaced Lloyd Bentsen with Krueger. Bentsen resigned his Senate seat to serve as Secretary of the Treasury under former President Bill Clinton. Krueger barely got to warm the seat up before he lost a June 1993 special election for the Senate position to Kay Baily Hutchison.
The following May, President Clinton appointed Krueger Ambassador to Burundi, an eastern African country. A year after presenting his credentials, the ambassador had a brush with death while a convoy he was traveling in was attacked. The unidentified gunmen killed one convoy member and injured several others but Krueger was airlifted to safety. He was recalled from the post for his safety, the report noted.
Clinton appointed him Ambassador to Botswana, a landlocked South African country, the following June. He remained in the African country for three years before returning to teaching, accepting a visiting fellowship at an Oxford college.
Krueger reportedly retired from teaching at Texas Tech University in 2017.
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