List of ambassadors of the United States to Iceland

Ambassador of the United States to Iceland
Seal of the United States Department of State
United States ambassador flag
Incumbent Erin Sawyer Chargé d'affaires since January 18, 2025
Nominator	The president of the United States
Appointer	The president with Senate advice and consent
Inaugural holder	Lincoln MacVeagh as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
Formation	August 8, 1941 (1941-08-08)
Website	is.usembassy.gov

Until 1874, Iceland was a dependency of Denmark rather than an independent nation. In 1874, Denmark granted Iceland home rule, which again was expanded in 1904. In 1918, The Act of Union, an agreement between Denmark, recognized Iceland as a fully sovereign state united with Denmark under a common king. Iceland established its own flag and asked that Denmark represent its foreign affairs and defense interests; thus, the United States ambassador to Denmark conducted foreign relations between the United States and Iceland.

The German invasion and occupation of Denmark on April 9, 1940, severed communications between Iceland and Denmark. As a result, on April 10, the Parliament of Iceland elected to take control of their own foreign affairs. The United States thus commissioned Lincoln MacVeagh as its first ambassador to Iceland on August 8, 1941. MacVeagh presented his credentials to the foreign minister of Iceland on September 30, 1941. His title was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. The US has maintained continuous diplomatic relations with Iceland since then.

Following a plebiscite, Iceland formally became an independent republic on June 17, 1944.

List of ambassadors

#	Name	Title	Appointment	Presentation of credentials	Termination of mission	Nature of appointment	Nature of termination
1	Lincoln MacVeagh	Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary	1941-08-08	1941-09-30	1942-06-27	Political appointee	Left post
2	Leland Burnette Morris		1942-08-13	1942-10-07	1944-05-10	Career FSO	Relinquished charge
3	Louis Goethe Dreyfus, Jr.		1944-03-21	1944-06-14	1946-10-21		Left post
4	Richard P. Butrick		1948-02-26	1948-04-29	1949-08-10
5	Edward B. Lawson		1949-07-22	1949-09-22	1954-05-29
6	John Joseph Muccio		1954-08-23	1954-10-12	1955-10-19		Mission title changed
		Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary	1955-10-19	1955-11-03	1959-12-16		Left post
7	Tyler Thompson		1960-01-27	1960-02-19	1961-04-16
8	James K. Penfield		1961-04-27	1961-05-24	1967-03-16
9	Karl Fritjof Rolvaag		1967-04-05	1967-05-09	1969-03-27	Political appointee
10	Luther I. Replogle		1969-07-08	1969-09-12	1972-06-15
11	Frederick Irving		1972-09-11	1972-10-11	1976-04-21	Career FSO
12	James J. Blake		1976-07-01	1976-09-08	1978-09-29
13	Richard A. Ericson, Jr. [1]		1978-10-12	1978-11-21	1981-08-15
14	Marshall Brement		1981-07-27	1981-09-16	1985-08-01
15	L. Nicholas Ruwe		1985-07-12	1985-08-21	1989-10-07	Political appointee
16	Charles Elvan Cobb, Jr.		1989-10-10	1989-11-08	1992-01-10
17	Sigmund Rogich		1992-05-11	1992-06-04	1993-10-14
18	Parker W. Borg		1993-10-08	1993-11-24	1996-07-13	Career FSO
19	Day O. Mount		1996-06-11	1996-09-03	1999-08-12
20	Barbara J. Griffiths		1999-08-09	1999-09-29	2002-07-29
21	James Irvin Gadsden		2002-10-03	2002-12-09	2005-07-14
22	Carol van Voorst		2006-01-03	2006-01-26	2009-04-30
23	Luis E. Arreaga		2010-09-10	2010-09-20	2013-11-23
24	Robert C. Barber		2015-01-02	2015-01-28	2017-01-20	Political appointee
25	Jeffrey Ross Gunter		2019-05-23	2019-07-02	2021-01-20
26	Carrin Patman		2022-08-07	2022-10-06	2025-01-18

See also

• Ambassadors of the United States
• Foreign relations of Iceland
• Iceland–United States relations

References

1. "The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR RICHARD A. ERICSON, JR" (PDF). Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. 1995-03-27. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-07-17.

•  This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State.

Further reading

• "Chiefs of Mission for Iceland". Office of the Historian. United States Department of State. Archived from the original on 2022-05-22. Retrieved 2022-06-10.}
• "Iceland". United States Department of State . Archived from the original on 2022-06-10. Retrieved 2022-06-10.
• "U.S. Embassy in Iceland". U.S. Embassy in Iceland. Archived from the original on 2022-06-10. Retrieved 2022-06-10.