James N. Purcell Jr. was born in
Nashville, Tennessee, in 1938 and raised in
Tennessee and
Florida. He was educated at
Furman University and was awarded a fellowship to
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at
Syracuse University, where he earned the
M.P.A. In 2019, Maxwell awarded Jim the Alumni Award. Purcell worked in public affairs for his entire career, serving in every presidential administration from
John F. Kennedy to
Ronald Reagan. After serving in the
Office of Management and Budget, he moved to the
United States Department of State in 1978. There, he worked in
management before being assigned to U.S.
refugee and
immigration policy related to the Indochinese refugees, as well as refugees of other humanitarian disasters. In 1983,
President of the United States Ronald Reagan nominated Purcell as Director of the Bureau of Refugee Programs, and he held this office from June 12, 1983, to September 28, 1986. In 1988, Purcell became Director General of the
International Organization for Migration in
Geneva, a post he held until 1998, having been re-nominated by
Bill Clinton and reelected. Among awards he received while at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) were The Order of the Phoenix (Greece) and Wings of Hope (USAIM). From 1998, he worked as an adviser for foreign governments dealing with refugee crises. Purcell died on January 5, 2024, at the age of 85. ==References==