Author Archive | Ven Suresh

William B. Clatanoff, 72, a labor and trade specialist who retired in 2005 as assistant U.S. trade representative for labor, an office he had held four years, died July 13 at a hospice center in Pasadena, Md. The cause was complications from cancer, said his wife, Katherine Clatanoff.

Mr. Clatanoff, an Annapolis native and resident, entered government service in 1974. He was a USAID officer in Egypt, deputy director of the D.C. Department of Employment Services, and adviser to Bahrain’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs before joining the U.S. Labor Department in 1984.

Later he was a labor officer at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo, a United Nations labor officer in Geneva and a labor and social affairs adviser in Baghdad.

Joseph Freedman, formerly of Washington, DC and Bethesda, MD, died at his home in Melbourne, FL on Thursday morning July 21, 2016 at the age of 92.

Joseph was born in Brighton, MA 1923. He was predeceased by his beloved wife of 43 years, Emily Feltman Freedman. Joseph graduated from the Boston Latin School (1940), the Georgia Institute of Technology (1943, B.S. Public Health Engineering), University of North Carolina (1946, MSC, Sanitary Engineering),Harvard University (SM, Sanitary Engineering), and Special Studies in Groundwater Development at the University of Minnesota. He was a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in MA and a Captain in the United States Public Health Services.

Joseph was employed by various international organizations including the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization, USAID, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. He had a rich lifetime of work bringing water supply, sanitation, and pollution control programs to people in rural villages and large urban cities in many regions of the world. He established some of the first PAHO/WHO offices, helped organize a National Ministry of Health and developed a national village water supply program with UNICEF and CARE.

Joseph loved to tell stories of his travels, and entertained friends and family with his many adventures. He was also a gifted polyglot – we are unsure of how many languages he actually spoke. He is survived by his daughter Susan Freedman-Noa, granddaughter Sarah Elizabeth Noa, son-in-law Alex Noa and numerous nieces and nephews and friends.

Miriam Harriet Labbok, MD, MPH, IBCLC, staunch crusader for the health of women and infants and longtime advocate for the health benefits of breastfeeding, passed away during the early morning hours of Aug. 13 after a courageous battle with cancer.

From 2006 to 2016, she was Professor of the Practice of maternal and child health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and founding director of the Gillings School’s Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute (CGBI).

Dr. Labbok enjoyed an illustrious career in academics and in national and international government agency service. After earning Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health degrees at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, in New Orleans, she worked as a medical officer for five years with the U.S. Agency for International Development, in Washington, D.C.

From 1981 to 1987, she served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Hygiene and Public Health. At Georgetown University, from 1987 to 1996, she was a faculty member in obstetrics and gynecology, director of the breastfeeding and maternal and child health division in the Institute for Reproductive Health, and director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center on Breastfeeding.

Prior to coming to UNC, she was chief of the nutrition and maternal/infant health division in the global bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development (1996-2001) and senior adviser for infant and young child feeding and care at UNICEF (2001-2005).

Dr. Labbok was recruited as the founding director of the Gillings School’s Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute. An anonymous donor’s generous gift established the center in 2006 with an intent to advance global research about the health benefits of breastfeeding and to educate women and families about the value of breastfeeding for infants and young children.

In the months preceding her death, Dr. Labbok experienced an outpouring of gratitude and support, not only from friends and associates but also from organizations whose members prized her many contributions to the field of maternal and child health.

In July, she was honored with the International Lactation Consultant Association’s Journal of Human Lactation Patricia Martens Award for Excellence in Breastfeeding Research, the Crystal Rose award from Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere, an organization that aims to address breastfeeding disparities among people of color, and the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee’s Legacy Award.

“Miriam was a passionate scientist and advocate for the health of women and children around the globe,” said Carolyn Halpern, PhD, professor and chair of the Gillings School’s maternal and child health department. “The Department of Maternal and Child Health was extremely fortunate to have her as a member of our faculty. Her leadership in building the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute is only one of the many, many important legacies of her work.”

“Miriam was a tireless advocate for women’s, children’s and families’ health – here and the world over,” agreed Herbert Peterson, MD, W.R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of maternal and child health, and of obstetrics and gynecology in the UNC School of Medicine. “Her commitment to breastfeeding was unsurpassed, as was her devotion to those we serve. She will be deeply missed, but she leaves behind a powerful legacy that will have an impact on public health for years to come.”

Peterson expressed gratitude that Dr. Labbok was able to celebrate the recent 10th anniversary of CGBI, which he called “the world-class academic center that she founded and led and which has had such important impact on breastfeeding policies, programs and practices globally, nationally and locally.”

Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH, dean and Alumni Distinguished Professor at the Gillings School, called Dr. Labbok “an incredible force for improving the health of mothers and babies.”

“She brought her passion for and knowledge about breastfeeding to our School and North Carolina, and she set in place the critical pieces of a strategy to improve the health of people in North Carolina and around the world,” Rimer said. “She was generous in sharing her wisdom and a very generous donor to the School. We will miss her.”

Lloyd Jonnes (“Doc”) died peacefully in his sleep on March 1, 2016 at Springwell Senior Living Community in Baltimore, Maryland. Predeceased by his wife Marilyn May Alley Jonnes. He is survived by his son Michael; his daughter, Jill; his son, Denis; his grandson, Nathaniel Jonnes; and his granddaughters, Gwyneth Jonnes, Hilary Ross, and Elisha Jonnes. All will miss him dearly.

Born on February 6, 1924, Lloyd grew up in Circleville, Ohio, graduating from Circleville High School in 1941. He attended Hobart College, where he captained the lacrosse team, before enlisting in the US Army in 1943. He served with distinction in the 318th Regiment, 80th Infantry Division from August 1944 to November 1945. After landing at Normandy, he was in campaigns that included the Battle of Falaise-Argentan Gap, Battle of the Bulge, and the sweep through Germany-Bitburg, Mainz, Kassel, Nuremberg and Regensburg. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Silver Star.

Upon his discharge, he returned to college, receiving a BA from Antioch College in 1948. In the same year, he married Marilyn May Alley, a fellow student, in Atlanta, Georgia, where they were interns with the National Labor Relations Board.

Following a year at the University of Zurich, he took a position with the Economic Recovery Program (Marshall Plan) in Berne, Switzerland. In 1953, he was assigned to the Economic Cooperation Administration office (ECA) in Vienna, Austria. In 1956, he moved to the ECA office in London, and in 1957 was transferred to the International Cooperation Administration (ICA) office in Tripoli, Libya, with a move a year later to Benghazi. In 1959, he returned to Washington, DC as Desk Officer in the Department of State for Yugoslavia, Spain and Poland. From 1961, he was a member of the Development Assistance Committee (OECD) in Paris. Between 1964 to 1967, he served as a USAID Program Officer in Ankara, Turkey. After a year as Fellow at the Center for International Relations, Harvard University, he was appointed Economic Counselor to the US Embassy in Saigon, followed by a move to the newly-founded USAID mission in Djakarta, Indonesia. Returning to Washington in 1970 in USAID”s Bureau for Program and Policy Coordination, he was promoted to Assistant Deputy Administrator of the agency. After a brief retirement, he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as US Representative to the Development Assistant Committee (OECD) in Paris.

Following retirement in 1980, he undertook graduate studies in Greek and Latin, receiving a PhD in 1992 from Catholic University. The results of his epigraphical fieldwork covering Greek sites in Anatolia were published in two volumes by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He collaborated with the print-maker John Ross on the prize-winning volume Birds of Manhattan. He also published a collection of ancient Greek maxims. Lloyd was an accomplished bridge player, and made his mark as skier, tennis player and golfer. An avid hiker, fisherman and birdwatcher, he and his wife Lyn frequently participated in Audubon Society counts of migratory birds. A soldier, scholar, dedicated civil servant, he was a gifted speaker and conversationalist.

The family and many friends that he and Lyn welcomed into their DC home in Adams Morgan will miss his energy, humor, and deep springs of wit and wisdom.

Lawrence Elliot Harrison, 83, a long-time resident of Martha’s Vineyard, died on December 9, 2015 at the University Hospital of Alexandroupolis, Greece. He is survived by his three daughters, Julia Harrison of Norwalk, CT, Beth Harrison of Lincoln, MA, and Amy Harrison Donnelly of Ridgewood, NJ, and his grandchildren, Dylan and Georgia Grady, Max and Harry Thébaud, and Megan, Jack and Nora Donnelly. Larry is also survived by his first wife and the mother of his children, Polly Fortier Harrison of Washington, DC. He is preceded in death by his second wife, Patricia Crane Harrison, his parents, David and Jenny Harrison, and his brother, Robert Arthur Harrison.

Mr. Harrison was born in Boston, Massachusetts; graduated from Brookline High School in 1949 and Dartmouth College in 1953; served as a lieutenant in the US Navy from 1954 to 1957; and graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School in 1960 with a Masters in Public Policy. From 1965 until he retired in 1982, Mr. Harrison directed USAID missions in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti and Nicaragua. He was a Senior Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he founded and directed the Cultural Change Institute. Between 1981 and 2001, Mr. Harrison was a visiting scholar at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

Mr. Harrison authored numerous books, beginning in 1985 with Underdevelopment Is a State of Mind: The Latin American Case. Here he laid the premises of work to come: first, that good intentions, hope, enthusiasm, and ample funding are insufficient to propel the development of countries into the modern world, and, second, that some cultures are more prone to progress than others and more successful at creating the cultural capital that encourages democratic governance, social justice for all, and the elimination of poverty.

This first publication was followed in 1992 by Who Prospers? How Cultural Values Shape Economic and Political Success; The Pan-American Dream in 1997; The Central Liberal Truth-How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself in 2006; and Jews, Confucians and Protestants-Cultural Capital and the End of Multiculturalism in 2012. In 2000, Mr. Harrison was co-editor with Samuel P. Huntington of Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, and in 2006 was co-editor with Jerome Kagan of Developing Cultures: Essays on Cultural Change. His articles have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Boston Globe, Foreign Policy, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.

Peter Oakes Sellar, of Staunton, Virginia, died at home on Tuesday, August 23, 2016. He was born June 10, 1937 in New York City to Dorothy Brown Sellar and Colin Reid Sellar and grew up mainly in New Jersey and Massachusetts. For undergraduate studies, he majored in American history and literature at Harvard University and earned his M.A. in International Relations from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Peter worked for the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1963-1993 and is credited with creating the world’s first strategy for developing democracy in the Latin American/Caribbean region. After retirement he helped his wife, Laurie, manage her textile and antique retail store.

Peter is survived by his wife, Laurie Gundersen, sister, Lucinda Thomson, two children, Katherine Sellar and Colin Sellar, step-children, Ariel Valentine, Aaron Davis, Nellie Davis and Gabriel Davis, and nine grandchildren.

Robert A. Fordham died peacefully at home of natural causes, surrounded by his family on October 13, 2016. He was 87 years old.

A native of Vermont, Robert was born in 1928 on the eve of the great depression and lived nearly nine decades here and around the world. He grew up in Saxton’s River, VT and attended Vermont Academy. He graduated from the University of Vermont with a bachelor’s degree in 1950 and completed his master’s degree in political science and public affairs in 1952. He served in the U.S. Army as a Reserve Commissioned Officer, leaving service with the rank of Second Lieutenant.

Mr. Fordham served in government under eight Presidents-from the Eisenhower to the Clinton Administration. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for several agencies including the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Information Agency, and U.S. Agency for International Development. These positions took him to Finland, India, Egypt, Syria, Switzerland, and Washington, DC. Work to improve health policy was a hallmark of the last four decades of his professional life, including more than 30 years of service in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (formerly Department of Health, Education, and Welfare). He was commended by President Johnson for his role as director of the first White House conference on health, and served as special assistant to the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, Phillip R. Lee, M.D., in the Johnson Administration.

Fordham was widely admired as creator of a new approach for convening and informing state health leaders about health policy and research, bringing leading experts to meet with elected and appointed officials. Inside government, Mr. Fordham was the original director of the User Liaison Program from 1979-1993, which he designed to convey the findings of health services research to state and local officials. Upon retiring from his career in federal service, he was employed by the Milbank Memorial Fund and was the original program officer for the Reforming States Group which uses similar purposes and methods. These efforts helped to transform the role of research in health policy, particularly at the state level.

Serving on temporary assignment as the Dean of Administration at the University of Vermont from 1967-1972, Mr. Fordham ensured the renovation of the Bennington Monument and protection of sites on campus. Negotiations and collaboration with student government in a time of change were another contribution. He was known for extraordinary management skills and an ability to work effectively with a wide array of people in positions in power and influence. Fordham’s “rule” was to expect the unexpected, which made him an effective planner and administrator. He took it as a great compliment when it was said he had a talent for getting things done.

In his personal life, he was a rugged outdoorsman who loved to fish, hunt, and camp. In later years, he created magnificent and unique flower gardens and spent as much time as possible in nature. He was proud of his Abenaki heritage. Robert Fordham is survived by his wife Kay Johnson, and his three daughters, Monique Fordham (Winooski, VT), Sonja Fordham (Washington, DC), and Robin Fordham and Bill Miller and grandchildren Madeleine and Morgan (Amherst, MA), as well as former wife and mother of his daughters, Ingrid Fordham. He was preceded in death by his parents, Marjorie Spaulding Fordham and Austin Lyle Fordham, and an infant son.

Emily Claire Leonard, 71, a retired Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, died of respiratory failure on April 22 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, the city of her last posting.

Born during World War II in her mother’s hometown of Morgantown, W. Va., Emily Claire Leonard moved with her family to Alexandria, Va., when her attorney father was appointed to a senior post in the Eisenhower administration’s Department of Justice. Ms. Leonard worked summers for the federal government during high school. After earning a B.A. in economics from Wellesley College and an M.S. in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ms. Leonard worked for a business gaming venture in Cambridge, Mass., before returning to Washington and beginning her career in the Foreign Service. Ms. Leonard served the U.S. government’s overseas programs for nearly a quarter century, initially as a budget examiner for USAID at the Office of Management and Budget (1971-1976). She then joined USAID, serving as a health economist in the Near East Bureau (1976-1979), as an assistant health officer in Cairo (1979-1982), a regional coordinator for the Middle East in the Bureau of Planning and Program Coordination (1982-1985), and as an assistant director and program officer in Tunisia (1985). After returning to Washington as a desk officer for the Office of Central American Affairs (1986-1989), Ms. Leonard concluded her career as the senior career officer in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. There she helped reform the justice system, enduring death threats to establish a district attorney’s office with nationwide jurisdiction. Her “valiant actions” were honored by the Honduran Bar Association, the Supreme Court of Honduras and the Public Ministry. She retired fromUSAID in November 1994, although she returned as a contract manager in Haiti for five months during 1995.

USAID colleagues remember Emily Leonard as a dazzling woman who windsurfed in the Mediterranean, went scuba diving in the Red Sea, and enlivened embassy parties. An accomplished linguist, she conversed easily in French, Arabic and Spanish. In retirement, Ms. Leonard studied law and enjoyed gardening, reading and collecting Central American art. She loved the people of Honduras and quietly provided regular financial help to needy students and families with disabled children. Emily Claire Leonard is survived by her sister Jennifer Leonard (and her husband David Cay Johnston) of Rochester, N.Y., and their children Molly and Kate Leonard; by her brother George Stephen Leonard (and his wife Kathy) of Monroe Township, N.J., and their children George and Valerie Leonard.

On July 18, 2016, we lost our beloved Harlan Haines Hobgood suddenly and unexpectedly to pneumonia. For our family, he was really our hero. He was the “rock” and the “brain” of the family, inspiring in us, and those he touched, to be the best people we could be, to serve others, and to fight for justice in this world.

Harlan was born in 1930 on a Navajo reservation in Arizona. He felt strongly about being of service to people and in that vein served as the parish minister at the Pilgrim Presbyterian Vinita Church in Oklahoma. He went on to attend to the spiritual and other needs of service men and women and their families as an officer and chaplain in the U.S. Army. In 1961, he met his wife, Catherine Vignal, recently arrived from France, on a blind date at a charity ball and instantly there were fireworks! They married in 1962 and had their first son, Nicholas, in 1964.

For the 20 years that followed, Harlan worked for the United States Agency for International Development tirelessly to improve the livelihoods, opportunities, and rights of people with little resources. He was truly remarkable in his passion, drive, and dedication to serving others. In 2002, he and Catherine discovered and settled in what they call their “Paradise,” Avila Beach, California. “When someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure.” And what a treasure he was!