Former US Ambassador to Malta dies

Robert P. Smith, the US ambassador to Malta in the Nixon years, has died at his home in Montana. He was 82.

A career diplomat, he also served as ambassador to Ghana and Liberia.

The Washington Post said he had suffered complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1983.

Mr. Smith joined the State Department in 1955 and developed a specialty in African affairs. From 1970 to 1974, he served as minister-counselor and deputy chief of mission in Pretoria, South Africa.

In 1974, Richard Nixon named him ambassador to Malta. In 1976, he succeeded Shirley Temple Black as ambassador to Ghana. From 1979 until his State Department retirement in 1981, Mr. Smith was ambassador to Liberia.

Mr. Smith was in the United States for medical treatment at the time of the bloody April 1980 coup that brought Samuel K. Doe to power in Liberia.

From 1981 to 1985, Mr. Smith was president and chief executive of the African Wildlife Foundation. From 1989 to 1998, he worked part time in the State Department's Office of Asylum Affairs.

His decorations included the State Department Meritorious Honor Award in 1967.