Joseph Wilson Prueher served as United States Ambassador to the People's Republic of China from 1999 to 2001. He was succeeded as ambassador by Clark T. Randt, Jr. Prior to his posting as ambassador, Prueher was a United States Navy Admiral and the Commander, United States Pacific Command from 1996 to 1999 and Vice Chief of Naval Operations from 1995 to 1996. A native of Tennessee where he was born in 1942, Admiral Prueher attended Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He also holds a master's degree in international affairs from George Washington University. He is a combat veteran of the Vietnam War where he flew as an A-6 Intruder pilot. In the later part of his career, he served as the seventy-third Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. He delivered the "letter of the two sorries" which defused the Hainan Island incident in 2001. 

November 25th, 1942 in Nashville (Age 81)