J. Christopher Stevens

Stevens was born on April 18, 1960, in Grass Valley, California, the eldest of three siblings born to Jan S. Stevens, a California Assistant Attorney General,[7] and his wife Mary J. Stevens (née Floris; born 1937),[8] from a West Coast family of French, Swedish and Chinook ancestry.[9] Stevens was raised in Northern California and had two younger siblings, Anne (b. 1962) and Thomas (b. 1965).[10]

Stevens' parents divorced in 1975, and both remarried. Stevens himself never married.[7] His mother, a cellist, joined the Marin Symphony Orchestra (1969—2004),[11] and in 1976 married Robert Commanday, a music critic with the San Francisco Chronicle.[12][13]

Stevens was an AFS Intercultural Programs exchange student in Spain during summer of 1977, and graduated from Piedmont High School[14] in 1978. He earned BA degree in history in 1982 at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. From 1983 to 1985, he taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. He graduated with JD degree from University of California, Hastings College of Law in 1989, and received MS degree from the National War College of National Defense University in 2010.

During the 2012 Benghazi attack, a fire was set against the wall of the main consulate building while three Americans were inside—Stevens, Sean Smith, and a security officer.[17] According to U.S. officials, the security officer escaped; the staff found Smith dead. They were unable to locate Stevens before being driven from the building under large arms fire.[17] Local civilians found Stevens and brought him to the Benghazi Medical Centre in a state of cardiac arrest. Medical personnel tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at about 2am local time on September 12, 2012.[17] Later reports suggested that the attack was coordinated and planned, with any protests either coincidental or possibly diversionary.[18] Libyan president Muhammad Magariaf blamed elements of Ansar al-Sharia for the killing, linking them to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Libyan officials suggested that it might have been a revenge attack mounted by loyalists (of deceased Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi) who were defeated in the Libyan Civil War the previous year.[19] The doctors who tended to Stevens said that no visible physical wounds were found on his body and that he died from smoke inhalation, making hypoxia the cause of his death.[20]

Grave of John Christopher Stevens in Grass Valley, California

The surviving Americans were taken to a safe house. A rescue squad consisting of eight former U.S. military was sent from Tripoli, the capital. They were ambushed and the safe house came under attack. Two more Americans died, including one sent from Tripoli; several were wounded.[17][21][22] Later reports identified the victims as Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty, both former Navy SEALs working as security and intelligence contractors.[23][24]

Stevens is buried in New Elm Ridge Cemetery (formerly known as Forester's Cemetery) in Grass Valley, California.

• Arnold Lewis Raphel, the previous U.S. ambassador to die in the line of duty
• Ambassadors of the United States killed in the line of duty
• List of assassinated American politicians

• Introducing U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens on YouTube – U.S. Embassy Tripoli video
• Memorial site
• Ambassador Christopher Stevens FB Memorial Page
• Appearances on C-SPAN