William Milam, an American diplomat and senior policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., died on February 17, 2026, at age 89.
Born in Bisbee, Arizona, and raised in Sacramento, California, he received an A.B. from Stanford University and an M.A.
in economics from the University of Michigan. Milam entered the Foreign Service in 1962 and retired at the end of July 2001, later returning to help set up the multilateral mechanism for the reconstruction of Afghanistan after Sept. 11 and to serve as interim charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya.
William Bryant Milam (July 24, 1936 – February 17, 2026) was an American diplomat who was Senior Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.