Author Archive | Ven Suresh

Peter Askin of Haymarket, VA passed away on Monday, August 13, 2018.

Peter, a retired Senior Foreign Service officer, spent 31 years with the Agency for International Development in various senior overseas and Washington assignments, among which were USAID Mission Director in El Salvador and Guatemala and as head of the Agency’s Central American Office during the turbulent 1980s. He was the recipient of several prestigious presidential and agency awards for his work and achievements during that time.

Peter retired from the Foreign Service in 1992, and then spent several years as an international development consultant, and later developed and taught courses in international development for Tulane University. In addition to a lifelong interest in history and U.S. foreign policy, his hobbies included tennis, sailing and genealogy. He was an active member of Holy Trinity Parish in Gainesville, VA as well as a member of the Secular Franciscan Order, and a frequent volunteer at the House of Mercy in Manassas VA.

Peter, who cherished and never forgot his western roots, was born in South Dakota and obtained most of his higher education in Montana. He served in the US Army as an artillery officer during the Korean War. He and his family came to the Washington area from Idaho in 1959, and he joined President Kennedy’s New Frontier in 1961.

Funeral services will be held at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Gainesville, VA on Thursday August 23rd at 10:30 am followed by a Celebration of Life at the Regency Club.

Princeton Lyman, a career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Nigeria and later to South Africa, where he helped engineer the transition from the country’s apartheid era of white supremacy to a multiracial, democratically elected government in the 1990s, died Aug. 24 at his home in Silver Spring, Md. He was 82. The cause was lung cancer, said a daughter, Lori Bruun.

Dr. Lyman joined the Foreign Service in 1961 and was assigned to the newly formed U.S. Agency for International Development. He lived in Korea in the 1960s, then turned his primary attention to Africa, serving as USAID’s program director in Ethi­o­pia in the 1970s and as U.S. ambassador to Nigeria from 1986 to 1989.

He achieved his greatest diplomatic breakthroughs in South Africa, where he was ambassador from 1992 to 1995. He arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria two years after Nelson Mandela had been released from his 27-year imprisonment. The country’s political parties — divided by race — spoke past each other, leaving the country on the brink of civil war. Police brutality toward black protesters was commonplace. “When I arrived, the negotiations were in total disarray,” Dr. Lyman said in a 1999 oral history for the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. “The threat of more violence was palpable. No one knew where the country was heading.”

Dr. Lyman, who grew up in a multiethnic neighborhood in San Francisco, approached the combustible situation with a sense of practicality and patience. He had the ear of both Mandela, who led the African National Congress party, and South Africa’s white president, F.W. de Klerk, who freed Mandela from prison and allowed opposition parties to function.

“Princeton became an important mediator bringing parties together, hoping to arrive at a shared understanding of what the future might look like,” George Moose, who was undersecretary of state for African affairs at the time, said in an interview. “He was very much the confidant of both parties, and they trusted him.” Contingency plans were being made by U.S. officials for how to handle a full-scale revolution in South Africa and its possible reverberations at home and abroad.

In South Africa, Dr. Lyman had dozens of conversations with Mandela and de Klerk. He brought them together to negotiate in person and to agree to continue discussions despite outbreaks of violence. “I found that I could talk to Mandela very easily, exchanging ideas,” Dr. Lyman said in the oral history. He found Mandela “a man of great dignity and great courtesy. We used to have very candid discussions. One had to understand that while he was able to laugh at himself, you had to treat him with dignity.”

He mollified rival political groups and kept the negotiations going between the principal leaders of how South Africa could manage a transition from the repressive apartheid rule of the minority white government to a more inclusive society. The result of Dr. Lyman’s behind-the-scenes talks were seen in 1994, when South Africa held its first multiracial elections. Mandela won the presidency with an overwhelming vote.

“At the time, no one thought the South African situation was going to end peacefully,” Moose said. “Princeton was an architect in helping Washington understand what the path could look like. Princeton’s role was very much underreported and underappreciated.”

Princeton Nathan Lyman was born Nov. 20, 1935, in San Francisco. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Lithuania who ran a corner grocery store in a largely African American neighborhood. His parents valued education and named four of their five sons after universities: Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton. (Another son was named Elliott, and a daughter was named Sylvia.)

Dr. Lyman graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1957 and received a doctorate in political science from Harvard University in 1961.

Dr. Lyman was the State Department’s director of refugee affairs from 1989 to 1992. After returning from South Africa, he was the State Department’s chief liaison to the United Nations, working closely with Secretary General Kofi Annan, who died Aug. 18. After retiring in 1999, he held posts at the Aspen Institute, U.S. Institute for Peace and Council on Foreign Relations.

While he was U.S. ambassador to Nigeria from 1986 to 1989, Dr. Lyman said he learned that a smile and well-placed compliment went a long way in managing an embassy — and in dealing with the host country. “The ambassador set the tone,” he said in the oral history. “If things were going well and the ambassador was happy, everybody worked that much harder. If the ambassador worried and fretted, so did the staff.”

From 2011 to 2013, he served as the special envoy to Sudan, seeking to resolve disputes that led to the division of the country. He published a book about his experiences in South Africa, “Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa’s Transition to Democracy,” in 2002.

His first wife, the former Helen Ermann, died in 2008 after 50 years of marriage. Survivors include his wife since 2009, Lois Hobson of Silver Spring; three daughters from his first marriage, Tova Brinn of Safed, Israel, Sheri Laigle of Silver Spring and Lori Bruun of Columbia, Md.; a brother; a sister; 11 grandchildren; and two great-grandsons.

During trying, even dangerous moments, Dr. Lyman could find humor in the life of a diplomat. “I keep telling people that when I go to Nigeria, I have a lot of fun,” he said in his 1999 oral history. “I say that even when the Nigerians have their hands in your pocket, they are fun. Once I was in a large crowd and a Nigerian did put his hand in my pocket. I stopped him and all he had to say was: ‘Sorry!’*

C. Richard Zenger passed away May 22, 2018, in Portland. He was 94.  Born in Portland March 11, 1924, Dick Zenger was raised by his mother, Nell Springer Zenger, a physical education teacher. He attended Boise Elementary School and Jefferson High School, where he was elected student body president and made many lifelong friends. In December 1941, after Pearl Harbor, Dick enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in the Pacific Theater as a radioman with the First Armored Amphibian Battalion. After the war, he married Edna Joyce Whitney, his high school sweetheart, and they started their family. When the Korean conflict erupted, Dick was called back to active duty. He survived the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, which took place in the dead of winter, and which he called “the worst experience of my life.” One day, as a forward spotter for an artillery company, Dick was one of the first to observe a fog bank that turned out to be the breath of thousands of Chinese solders advancing on his company’s position. The bonds he forged with his comrades during war were always strong and meaningful for him.

When Dick retired from the Foreign Service in 1981, he and Edna celebrated their love of travel by embarking on a yearlong trip that started in Tunis and wandered around the Mediterranean and eastward across Asia. By the time they arrived back in Portland, they had spent time in 15 countries, eaten an amazing array of food (detailed in Edna’s letters), and challenged each other to 365 games of Scrabble. Dick was winning by one game.

In retirement, Dick and Edna settled in in N.W. Portland. They continued to travel internationally for a number of years for his consulting work with regional housing offices. They enjoyed staying in touch with a wide circle of friends and relatives. They explored the beauties of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest as hikers and birders, and spent many weeks each winter at Cannon Beach. In his 70’s, Dick hiked the Oregon Coast solo from Astoria to the California border. His desire to know more about his ancestry took him to Falchern, Switzerland, the tiny alpine village where his grandfather had been born.

The loving and constant care of Mary-Ann Zenger was integral to Dick’s well being in the last years of his life. The family is grateful to her and grateful for the compassion and professionalism shown to Dick by members of the community Rose Villa, where he and Edna lived since 2012.

Dick is survived by his wife, Edna, his partner for the past 72 years; daughters, Rebecca, Robin, Amy and Mary Ann; daughter-in-law, Gabrielle Francis-Zenger; sons-in-law, Stephen Link and Jack Williams; and grandchildren, Matthew and Ian Loveless and Beatrix and Isobel Zenger. He was preceded in death by his son, John Whitney Zenger; and his son-in-law, Stephen Loveless.

Condolences may be sent to PO Box 68236, Portland, OR 97268. A memorial service will take place at 2 p.m., June 30, 2018, at Rose Villa, 13505 S.E. River Road, Portland.

Douglas Ramsey, a retired FSO and Vietnam prisoner of war, died in Boulder, Nevada on February 23, 2018. He graduated from high school at Wasatch Academy in Utah, and received a full scholarship to Occidental College in Los Angeles, graduating summa cum laude in 1956, and became the college’s Rhodes Scholar candidate. Following graduate work at Harvard, he served in the Air Force in Japan.

He entered the Foreign Service in 1956. After initial assignments, he volunteered for service in Vietnam, arriving there after language training in May 1963. His first job was as a branch public affairs officer II Corps. In 1964, Ramsey and another good Vietnamese speaker, USIA officer Frank Scotton, conducted an unprecedented field survey in bellwether Long An province on the status of pacification. Doug was later detailed to AID in war-torn Hau Nghia Province, working for celebrated AID officer John Paul Vann. Vann soon named Ramsey to replace him as chief provincial representative.

On January 17, 1966, while driving refugee supplies to a threatened hamlet, he was captured by VC guerrillas. He suffered from malaria, beriberi, scurvy and occasional starvation. “Seven years and several hundred attacks of malaria later,” he wrote, “I was released.” He was one of the last American prisoners to be freed. Frank Scotton, was first to greet him.

He later served as economic, commercial, and science officer in Taipei; assistant political officer in Beijing; and refugee officer in Kuala Lumpur and Manila. In 1988, he retired owing to disabilities, which included still more malaria. Doug was the recipient of two Superior Honor awards, the State Department award for Valor, and AFSA’s Harriman award for courage, creativity and disciplined dissent.

Following retirement to Nevada in 1988, he contributed to several books and wrote his memoirs. Ramsey wrote that he was “a life-long bachelor with no children (of whom I was aware)”. He was predeceased by his parents and is survived by a number of cousins and numerous friends.

Douglas Ramsey was recently accorded posthumous membership in DACOR. In accordance with his longtime wish, his ashes will be interred in the DACOR section of Washington’s Rock Creek Cemetery.

A public memorial service honoring Douglas Ramsey will be held at DACOR on Friday, October 5, from 3 to 6 p.m. Attendees are asked to e-mail brucekinsey@hotmail.com to reserve a place.

Robert Webb Huddleston (87) passed away on September 11, 2018. Born in East Orange to Surada Webb and Robert E Huddleston, he came to love the Southwest while stationed at Sandia Base as an Army Intelligence officer in 1956.

He graduated from Williams and joined the Foreign Service serving both with the U.S. Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development. His thirty year government career took him to Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Rio de Janeiro, Freetown, Bamako, and Washington D.C. He and his wife retired to Santa Fe in 2005.

He is survived by his wife Ambassador (ret.) Vicki Huddleston and his children Michele, Stuart, Robert and Alexandra as well as four grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Jack I. Stone, an internationally noted economist who focused on economic development challenges and trade issues and who was instrumental in launching the concept of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as a category deserving special attention, died on November 1, 2018 after a long illness. He was 98.

In a career that spanned seven decades, Mr. Stone focused on the unique economic development challenges faced by countries with geographic or political disadvantages and on ways to improve their prospects through better trade terms and improved transport access to major markets and trading hubs. Mr. Stone is considered by many as the “father” of the least developed countries concept which helped focus special attention on the often unique challenges faced by the poorest countries on the planet. First as director of Research at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva in the 1970s and later as Director of UNCTAD’s Special Program on Least Developed, Land-Locked and Island Developing Countries, Mr. Stone was instrumental in overcoming obstacles to and in developing political support for the Least Developed Countries concept. At the time, there was opposition to the LDC designation from a number of larger and better off developing countries who were concerned the new designation would weaken international support for their own development.

Mr. Stone kept a focus on the unique challenges faced by the world’s LDCs and built support for additional measures to assist these countries by using his position to champion rigorous analytical research, field studies and expert group reports that clearly laid out the unique impediments to growth often shared by the poorest of developing countries. While the concept of LDCs became firmly established, Mr. Stone often weighed in with his view that the category should focus on countries with solvable trade, transport and geographic challenges rather than domestic political shortcomings which could cause an otherwise relatively wealthy nation to qualify for the added attention the category provided. He also expressed concerns that the category might become too broad to be truly meaningful although he recognized the inherent political nature of the category and the need for critical mass to generate support for the category and to give it political weight.

Born in St. Cloud Minnesota on September 9, 1920, Mr. Stone’s early years coincided with the Great depression which helped fuel his interest in economic issues and his family was forced by economic necessity to move first to Seattle, where he spent most of his formative years, and then to Kansas City. Mr. Stone received an A.B. degree in 1941 from the University of Chicago where he majored in Political Science. There he decided that most political issues were grounded in economic challenges and focused increasingly on economics in graduate studies he began at the University of Chicago. In 1946, Mr. Stone joined the post war U.S. Military Government in Germany as an Economist and Statistician for the High Commission and Marshall Plan Agency where he worked for eight years. His time there, including witnessing the Berlin Airlift first hand, gave him an early insight into practical challenges in development economics. Mr. Stone returned to the US in 1954 and enrolled in the Graduate School of Public Administration at Harvard University as a mid-career Littauer Fellow. He then studied at the Department of Economics at Harvard, completing all requirements for a Ph.D. in economics except for his thesis.

In 1963 Mr. Stone returned to government service at the State Department as a Senior Economist and Deputy Chief of the Economic Program Division of the Office of Policy Planning at the US Agency for International Development. In 1966, Mr. Stone moved to Paris to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as Head of the Financial Policies Division of the Development Assistance Committee. There he helped negotiate a revised agreement on terms of aid and worked on Indonesian debt rescheduling agreements. In 1970, Mr.

Mr. Stone was a life-long learner often able to bond with people of varied interests with detailed knowledge of their fields. His broad interests coupled with an ability to see problems from a number of angles likely contributed to his success. Maintaining meaningful friendships across a wide variety of age groups also enabled him to remain professionally active well into his later years.. Stone is survived by his son, Daniel Walter Stone, and two grandsons, Jacob Rafael Stone and Cody Juan Stone. Services were held in Annapolis, MD. Mr. Stone is survived by his son, Daniel Walter Stone, and two grandsons, Jacob Rafael Stone and Cody Juan Stone. Services were held in Annapolis, MD.

John William Koehring , 83, passed away on Sunday, September 16, 2018 in Virginia Beach, after several months of declining health. He was born in Syracuse, NY on November 13, 1934 , the son of Ralph William Koehring and Mary Imogene Prince. He spent his boyhood in Dewitt, NY, attending Moses DeWitt elementary school and high school in Fayetteville, NY where he played football and basketball. During those years he was an enthusiastic Cub Scout and Boy Scout, earning the rank of Eagle Scout and spending a summer at the Philmont Ranch in the southwest. It was during those adventurous scouting years that he developed his life long love of the woods, mountains, and camping. After graduating from high school in 1952 he entered Dartmouth College to graduate in the class of 1956. He played football and rugby at Dartmouth. He lived two years at Corey Ford’s house. Corey Ford established the Dartmouth Rugby Club, one of the first rugby clubs in the United States. He was also a fraternity member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. In addition to academics and sports, he worked at the Hanover Inn, where he learned the life skill of selecting and cutting meat.

While at Dartmouth, he was NROTC, and after graduating, worked at the Naval Observatory in DC, before transferring to deep sea diving in every major naval theatre of the world. He spent four years in the Navy before entering into foreign service training in preparation for a life of service with the Agency for International Development in sub-saharan Africa. Over the span of 45 years, he served in the Ivory Coast, the Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroon, Kenya, and the Sudan. Our father was an amazingly disciplined leader who cared deeply about his colleagues. The host government officials with whom he worked knew that they were fortunate to be dealing with a counterpart who was driven to achieve mutually desired outcomes. In 1985, he was awarded the Presidential Meritorious Service Award. He retired as a Career minister and a distinguished career diplomat. In retirement, he enjoyed a more tranquil life of fishing and bonfires in the Adirondacks and surf fishing on the Outer Banks.

He is survived by his wife Elizabeth Bready Koehring, his eldest son Joseph P. Koehring, his second born son John Fritz Koehring, his youngest son Ralph Vincent Koehring, who continues a family tradition of serving overseas as a foreign service officer, his loving sister, Gretchen Strong of Southwest Harbor, Maine, and six grandchildren: Caleb, Jacob, Kazimir, Josephine, Louisa, and Gideon.

Loving, devoted, compassionate, and adventurous, Paul Richard Deuster was guided by a strong moral compass to do what was good and right in the world. On November 20th, at the age of 76, he peacefully passed away in his favorite room at home. He will be deeply missed by his family –his true love of 50 years and their two daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren, as well as his sister, brother and brother-in-law.

Paul’s journey began in Oklahoma where he was born and in Racine where he was raised. He was on the debate team at his high school, St. Catherine, then graduated with a BA in Chemistry and Mathematics from Dominican College (1965). He earned both his MA in Economics (1968) and his PhD (1971) from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Paul received a Ford Fellowship that took him on his first trip to Indonesia to conduct research for his dissertation “The Rural Consequences of Indonesian Inflation: Case Study of the Yogyakarta Region.” This trip not only launched his career as a development economist, he also met his wife. They were married in 1970 in Madison, WI.

That same year, Paul joined the faculty at Ohio University, which was one of three federally funded Language and Area Centers for Southeast Asia in the US. At Ohio University, Paul taught Principles, Intermediate Macro and Microeconomics, Economic Development, and International Trade; he developed a course on the Economics of South East Asia and served a term as Southeast Asian Studies Program Director.

Paul left Ohio University to join USAID in 1984. During his more than 20 years with USAID, Paul headed economic growth teams or offices in the Philippines, Egypt, Indonesia and Washington. He loved his work and poured both his intellect and heart into it. In his development career, Paul also worked with the World Bank, UNDP, The Asia Foundation and other consulting firms. He spent 30 years overseas.

Paul loved the discovery of travel (always doing it with respect for other cultures and an open mind to learn more), the challenge of bridge (whether playing with others or simply enjoying books on strategy), Disney films and science fiction (both as imaginary worlds to jump into) and, of course, the Green Bay Packers.

His gentle spirit and positive approach to life will be missed.

Malcolm Forbes Baldwin, 78, husband of alumna Pamela Baldwin, passed away on Monday, Nov. 12 at his home in Lovettsville, Virginia after a decade-long battle with prostate cancer.

Born April 5, 1940 in Rochester, NY, Malcolm was the son of Schuyler Forbes Baldwin and Doris Hawkins Baldwin and brother of Gordon Brewster Baldwin and Beryl Baldwin Punt, all now deceased.  He is survived by his loving wife Pamela Lane Baldwin and his children Peter Lane Baldwin of Dummerston, VT, Rebecca Baldwin Fuller of Waterford, VA and Alice Baldwin O`Keefe of Bend, OR, as well as grandchildren Malcolm, Aidan and Kyleigh Fuller and Penelope O`Keefe.

From the ages of 2-18, Malcolm attended Harley School in Rochester, an independent school where his mother taught.  He followed his father and brother in attending Haverford College, where he nurtured his lifelong interest in history.  He was also a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, choosing afterwards to apply his legal knowledge to the then-nascent field of environmental law and policy.

While working under Russell Train at the Conservation Foundation, he convened the first national conference on environmental law, and co-wrote and edited Law and the Environment, a book that helped guide the then-emerging field of environmental law.  He and his wife Pamela co-authored Onshore Planning for Offshore Oil, based on the Scottish experience with North Sea oil development.  He served as senior environmental law and policy specialist at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) during the Carter Administration, and as Acting Chair of CEQ in the opening months of the Reagan Administration while attempting to preserve the Council`s work in the face of new leadership less enthusiastic about environmental protection.  He also chaired the board of Defenders of Wildlife in the 1980s.

In tandem with Pamela, a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), he lived in Sri Lanka from 1988 to 1993.  There he led a team fielded by the International Resources Group (IRG) in helping local officials establish national environmental laws, policies and procedures that remain in force today.  His later IRG assignments included leading development of a USAID-funded Environmental Partnership Program and establishing an Environmental Business Program.

Upon retirement in 2002, he dedicated his abundant energies and the rest of his life to growing wine grapes and raising sheep at WeatherLea Farm, and to preserving rural land and businesses in Loudoun County.  He served on the Loudoun County Rural Economic Development Council and on the boards of the Piedmont Environmental Council, the Land Trust of Virginia and Save Rural Loudoun.  He was also an active member of the Loudoun County Democratic Party and he ran unsuccessfully for County Supervisor in 2011 as a Democrat in a heavily Republican district.

Above all, Malcolm Baldwin will be remembered by family and friends the world over for his kindness, generosity of spirit and twinkle in the eye, as well as by the many people whose lives, careers and interests he touched and nurtured.

A celebration of Malcolm’s life will be held at The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick, MD on Dec. 1, 2018 at 1 p.m.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a conservation fund for the preservation of family farms being established in his memory by the Land Trust of Virginia at www.landtrustva.org.