Ambassador Robert D. Nesen: RIP

The Ventura County Star has Former Ambassador Nesen dies at home.

Robert D. Nesen, a Ventura County businessman who became a U.S. ambassador during the Reagan administration and earlier served as assistant secretary of the Navy, died at his home in Thousand Oaks, his family said Monday. He was 87.

Nomination of Robert Dean Nesen To Be United States Ambassador to Australia and Nauru

April 17, 1981

The President today announced his intention to nominate Robert Dean Nesen, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., to be Ambassador to Australia and to serve concurrently as Ambassador to the Republic of Nauru.

Mr. Nesen served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1946 and was in the Naval Reserve from 1946 to 1966, lieutenant commander. In 1941 he was with Air-Research Corp. of Los Angeles, Calif. From 1946 to 1947, he was the owner-manager of Coast Aero Flying Service of Oxnard, Calif. Since 1948 he has been founder-chairman of the board, R. D. Nesen Oldsmobile-Cadillac, Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif. Also, since 1971 he has been founder-chairman of the board, Nesen Leasing Corp.

From 1972 to 1974, Mr. Nesen served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in Washington, D.C. He was appointed by Governor Reagan to the California New Car Dealers Policy and Appeals Board (elected first president), California State Board of Education, and as chairman, then cochairman of the California delegation to the National Convention. He served as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Review Board, Department of State, from 1970 to 1973.

Mr. Nesen was born January 22, 1918, in St. Louis, Mich. He attended Tri-State Engineering College and graduated as an aeronautical engineer in 1941 from Curtis-Wright Technical School. He is married to the former Delta Hudson and has three children.

A stalwart Reagan Republican and Ventura County patron of Republican politics, Ambassador Robert Nesen has passed on.

Condolences to his family……..