David Snyder Robins, 79

Scholar. Soldier. Diplomat.

David Snyder Robins of Bigfork died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning on April 23, 2019. He was born in Saint Anthony, Idaho, March 11, 1940, the second son of Stanford Wright Robins and Harriette Snyder Robins. In 1948, the family moved to Havre where his parents owned and operated the Grand Hotel and several related businesses.

Growing up in Havre, he particularly loved outdoor sports, hiking, fishing, hunting and camping in the Bear Paw mountains and also visiting Bigfork frequently with friends to fish Swan River and Swan Lake.

Always a good student, David attended Havre Public Schools and graduated from Havre High School in 1958. He won a scholarship to Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and graduated with a degree in economics in 1962.

In 1963, he entered the U.S. Army as a commissioned officer and served his initial assignments at Fort Benning, Georgia. In 1964, he was detailed to the U.S. Army Security Agency (ASA) and assigned to an ASA overseas field station near Ankara, Turkey. His duties included extensive travel in Turkey as well as to Iran, Pakistan and India. In 1965, he returned to the United States assigned to Fort Lewis, Washington, where he commanded a company attached to the 2nd Infantry Division. In 1966, he and his unit deployed to the Republic of Vietnam where he won numerous decorations including the Bronze Star medal.

Following his military service, David did graduate work in political science and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1972, he joined the Foreign Service of the Department of State. Following training in Washington, D.C., he performed economic and political diplomatic duties in U.S. embassies in Kuwait, Lebanon, Tunisia, Iraq, Jordan, Yugoslavia and Morocco. He also served in the Office of Egyptian Affairs in the State Department in Washington.

In 1991, David was appointed State Department political advisor to then-Lt. Gen. John Shalikashvili, who commanded Operation Provide Comfort, a multinational military and humanitarian relief operation engaged in rescuing tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees who had been chased into the harsh mountainous regions of northern Iraq by Saddam Hussein’s forces following Operation Desert Storm, which liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. Following this second stint in Iraq, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Manama, Bahrain, during which time he served as Acting Chief of Mission for 17 months, and helped negotiate land basing rights in Bahrain for the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf. In his final State Department assignment, he was the senior intelligence officer responsible for Iraq. He earned numerous awards and decorations throughout his Foreign Service career, including the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for his work in Bahrain.

A service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 11, at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Ferndale.