 john thomas "tom" schieffer (born october 4, 1947) is an american diplomat who served as u.s. ambassador to australia from 2001 to 2005 and as u.s. ambassador to japan from 2005 to 2009. he is the founder and principle of envoy international, a consulting firm that represents companies with international interests.http://texascentral.com/the-project/#the-team schieffer is a friend and former business partner of president george w. bush. he is the younger brother of bob schieffer, a cbs news reporter and host of face the nation. ==early life and education== john thomas (tom) schieffer was born in fort worth, the youngest child of the late john e. schieffer and the former gladys payne, both originally from austin. his father was the managing partner of a construction company. his mother stayed home to rear the children. in addition to his brother, bob, schieffer has a sister, sharon schieffer mayes. she is a retired teacher and school administrator who taught science for seventeen years before becoming the vice principal of dunbar high school in fort worth. sharon mayes eventually became the high school principal at keller high school at a time when only 2 percent of the principals in texas' largest high schools were women. she also had a successful career as an administrator in the keller independent school district. he grew up in fort worth attending public schools, and graduated from arlington heights high school in 1966. schieffer attended the university of texas at austin, receiving a b.a. degree in 1970, was a phi delta theta having majored in government and minored in history, and a masters degree in international relations in 1972. his master's thesis was entitled, "an examination of the nuclear weapons debate in india." the thesis correctly predicted that india would explode a nuclear device in 1974 and pursue the acquisition of nuclear weapons as the result of the security threat presented by china. ==early political career== while in college he worked in the off
1947_births Ambassadors_of_the_United_States_to_Australia Ambassadors_of_the_United_States_to_Japan Foreign_relations_of_Japan Grand_Cordons_of_the_Order_of_the_Rising_Sun Honorary_Officers_of_the_Order_of_Australia JapanaUnited_States_relations Living_people Los_Angeles_Dodgers_executives Major_League_Baseball_executives Major_League_Baseball_team_presidents Members_of_the_Texas_House_of_Representatives People_from_Fort_Worth,_Texas Texas_Democrats Texas_Rangers_executives University_of_Texas_at_Austin_alumni