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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release August 10, 1996

          PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES WYCHE FOWLER, JR.  AS
          U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

     President Clinton today announced the appointment of Wyche

Fowler, Jr. of Atlanta, Georgia, to be U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He will succeed Raymond Edwin Mabus, Jr. Mr. Fowler will serve as a recess appointee. Mr. Fowler was nominated on June 10, 1996 and his nomination is pending before the Senate.

President Clinton's decision to name Mr. Fowler to a recess appointment is a reflection of the importance the President attaches to maintaining the closest possible cooperation with Saudi Arabia at a time of particular importance in U.S. - Saudi relations and in the Middle East generally.

Until January 1, 1996, Wyche Fowler was a partner in the law firm of Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy. He now practices law as a sole practitioner in Atlanta, Georgia and Washington, D.C.

Mr. Fowler served for 16 years in the United States Congress. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, he served as Assistant Floor Leader, helping mold a bipartisan consensus for major public policy issues. He was a member of the Senate Appropriations, Budget, Energy and Agriculture Committees. First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1977, he was a member of the Ways and Means and Foreign Affairs Committees, the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Congressional Arts Caucus.

Before his election to Congress, Mr. Fowler practiced law in Atlanta for eight years and was elected at age 29 to the Atlanta City Council. He was selected president of the Council four years later and served in that capacity until 1977.

Born on October 6, 1940, in Atlanta, Georgia, Mr. Fowler received a B.A. in English and philosophy from Davidson College in 1962 and a J.D. from Emory University in 1969. He holds honorary degrees from Hofstra University, Davidson and Morris Brown College. He is married to the former Donna Hulsizer of Poughkeepsie, New York and he has one grown daughter.

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