In Letter to Friends, Slain U.S. Ambassador Expressed Hope LONDON - I last heard from Chris Stevens two months ago, just after he hosted a July 4 reception in the gardens of the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, Libya. "Somehow our clever staff located a Libyan band that specializes in 1980s soft rock," he wrote, "so I felt very much at home." In a catch-up e-mail to family and friends, Mr. Stevens described his first six weeks back in Libya, a country he knew well, this time as the U.S. ambassador. "The whole atmosphere has changed for the better," he wrote. People smile more and are much more open with foreigners. Americans, French and British are enjoying unusual popularity. Let's hope it lasts! On Wednesday, a Libyan official said that Mr. Stevens and three other embassy employees were killed in an attack on their car, after militants stormed a consular building in Benghazi to protest an American film they said insulted the Prophet Muhammad. Mr. Stevens was aware of the risks in the country, where he had already served as deputy chief of mission during the regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi. The embassy building had actually been burnt down by regime loyalists during the Libyan revolt, "so we are now using the previous ambassador's spacious Palm Springs-like residence as our chancery," he had written to us. All American staff lived on a gated compound a few minutes away: "It's comfortable and resembles a cozy retirement community in Arizona, minus the golf carts." He acknowledged the security situation was still a bit uncertain: "We move around town in armored S.U.V.'s with security teams watching out for us." J. Christopher Stevens, an Arabic speaker, was the U.S. administration's point man during the Libyan revolution, operating from Rome and later Libya itself, where he served as special representative to the Libyan Transitional National Council. As a generous and unstuffy Californian and a consummate host, his friendships extended well beyond the diplomatic community. I first knew him when he was both political section chief at the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem and an ironic and humorous observer of the foibles of a region he loved. In July, Chris said he was excited about the prospect of forthcoming Libyan elections and of showing Sen. John McCain around town during a visit. He had got into the habit of a daily run through "our somewhat rural neighborhood of goat farms and olive groves and vineyards" and had tracked down his old tennis coach, Mohamed, for a weekly match. "All in all, it's great to be back," he wrote, "especially in the 'new Libya,' as people here are saying." In a short personal postscript a few days later, he added: "It is quite amazing out here. And now it seems the Muslim Brotherhood has suffered a defeat at the polls! Strange and unexpected. Mr. Stevens' introduction to the Middle East was as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco where he taught English in the Atlas Mountains. A former lawyer, he entered the Foreign Service in 1991 at the age of 31. He took a year off from diplomacy in 2010 to study at the National War College. After the Arab Spring erupted, he was a natural choice to reinforce the State Department's presence in the region given his knowledge of Libya. Before that, in Jerusalem in the wake of the second Palestinian intifada, he had the delicate task of dealing with the often troublesome Palestinian Authority leadership, a task made sometimes even more frustrating by U.S. security protocols. American officials could only enter the Palestinian Territories in large and highly visible convoys. Mr. Stevens said he would have preferred the routine of his European colleagues, who could just jump into a car or even hire a taxi. Mr. Stevens also appreciated the ironies of having to rely on security cooperation from the formerly "terrorist" Qaddafi regime when he was posted in Libya from 2007 after the U.S. restored relations with Tripoli. The regime fretted that the Americans would be targets for Islamic militants. Mr. Stevens had many friends in the Arab world, including those who yesterday paid tribute to him in social media messages. On Facebook yesterday, Ezzedine Choukri Fishere, an Egyptian novelist and former diplomat who knew Mr. Stevens from Jerusalem, posted: "One of the best people I met, an American who understood and empathized with the Arab predicament." Harvey Morris is the European blogger for IHT Rendezvous and a long-time foreign correspondent.