On his frequent sorties into Baghdad, he visits one of Saddam Hussein’s former Presidential Palaces, now headquarters of the CPA. It’s a garish concrete structure he characterizes as “disappointing given the megalomania of the former regime.” One of its attributes, he says, is a “nice swimming pool” used by offduty coalition soldiers. He works nearby in the Iraq Forum, the building from which most civilian reconstruction is managed. Back in Cairo he operates from the U.S. Embassy supporting the U.S. economic assistance program in Egypt. This effort, he says, plays a key role in the resolution of the Palestinian issue and efforts to combat international terrorism.

Egypt is also the place where Groarke calls home. It is there he lives with his wife, Margaret, and their two daughters, Jacqueline, 8, and Juliette,5. Margaret is also a lawyer and Democracy officer with USAID. She has the job of managing a project designed to modernize Egypt's court system. The couple was married in 1988 in a Renaissance Palace, now City Hall in Venice, Italy.

The couple adopted Jacqueline in China in 1995 and Juliette from Thailand in 1999. Last year she became an American citizen.

Groarke grew up in a family where his Irish-born parents had only limited educational opportunities. Yet they emphasized education as a means of escaping poverty.

“It was always my intention to pursue a career in law and international affairs,” he writes. In his youth he traveled abroad earning a Masters Degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics. After that he went on to study International Law at Penn.