Marrack Goulding, British diplomat who was 1st UN undersecretary for peacekeeping, dies at 73

LONDON – LONDON (AP) — Marrack Goulding, a British diplomat who served as the first head of U.N. peacekeeping operations, has died at age 73.

Goulding died Friday, according to a death notice published by his family in The Times and The Daily Telegraph newspapers. The cause of death was not announced.

Goulding was appointed undersecretary-general for special political affairs, in charge of peacekeeping operations, in 1986. He was closely involved in setting up the U.N. Department for Peacekeeping Operations in 1992.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Goulding "led an area of exponential growth at an exceptionally challenging time of change for the organization and for the world as a whole," U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said.

"His sure-footed diplomatic judgment and firm leadership were indispensable assets as he distinguished himself on delicate assignments ranging from Namibia's post-independence settlement to the Iran-Iraq conflict, while also involved in the U.N.'s work in Cambodia, Central America, Lebanon and former Yugoslavia," Haq said in New York.

From 1993 to 1996, Goulding was undersecretary-general for political affairs, then returned to Britain to serve for a decade as warden of St. Antony's College, Oxford.

Goulding also served as Britain's ambassador to Angola from 1983 to 1985.

Goulding published his memoirs in 2002, titled "Peacemonger."

A private funeral service was being held July 20 in Silton in southwestern England.