Archive | 2014

Thomas Luche died June 19 in an automobile accident in Alden, New York. One of the early members of International Voluntary Services, Luche went to Vietnam with IVS in 1957, beginning a long association with that country as well as a career with the Agency for International Development. With AID, Luche later worked in Thailand, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Tanzania, and Ghana. He was later AID representative in Cape Verde and Burkina Faso. Since 2000, the Luches have lived in Mount Dora, FL, following decades of residence in the Washington, DC area. An avid fisherman and boater and an accomplished linguist fluent in Portuguese, Danish, French and Vietnamese, Luche was active on issues of the environment, human equality, preservation of endangered species, as well local cultural and church affairs. He leaves behind his wife of 55 years, Winifred Luche (born Bogardus), son Stephen, and daughters Jenna Luche-Thayer and Sarah Luche Durso. Luche served on the board of directors of IVS and was a member of DACOR, an organization of foreign affairs professionals. Memorial services and reception are scheduled for 11 AM, Saturday August 2 at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Eustis, Florida.

Thomas Clifford Luche was born January 24, 1934 in Brooklyn, NY, to Jennie and Theodore Luche. Summers spent at grandmother’s farm in Northampton, Pa, contributed to a lasting interest in nature and the outdoors. He attended the State University College of Forestry at Syracuse University. While there, he met Winifred Bogardus of Fulton, NY, also a student at Syracuse. According to family legend, their first encounter was when Tom worked as a “pot boy” (washing pots and pans) in the Alpha Phi Sorority house where Winnie was a member and a waitress. They were married 1959 in Bethesda, Maryland.

After completing forestry school, Tom participated in a graduate fellowship program that took him to Denmark and Finland to work on forestry and plant issues in those northern climates. He learned fluent Danish, absorbed the life and customs of both nations, and began a lifelong interest in the cultures and daily activities of other countries.

Shortly after, Luche began his long involvement with Vietnam. In 1957, he joined the first group of volunteers to that country from IVS, the International Voluntary Services, the forerunner and partial model for the Peace Corps. Much of his early work was with refugee programs, helping to resettle the numerous refugees who chose to go south when Vietnam was partitioned in 1954-55. He learned fluent Vietnamese and worked as well in French, which he spoke and read with ease. Over time, Luche joined the U.S. Agency for International Development (then known in Vietnam as USOM) and was one of the first members of a new program, Rural Affairs. An unorthodox operation designed to expedite economic, social, and welfare programs to Vietnam’s provinces and rural population, Rural Affairs placed its young representatives in the provinces to work first-hand on these issues with local officials and village leaders. Luche worked in several provinces, most notably the highland area of Ban Me Thuat.

While the Luches enjoyed life in Vietnam, it was not without stress and danger. Part of their house in Saigon, for example, was blown up by a Molotov cocktail lobbed by a bicyclist riding down a nearby alley. During those years the family grew. Son Stephen was born in Washington, DC in 1959, and daughters Jenna and Sarah were born in Vietnam in 1960 and 1962. Over the years, Luche kept close ties with IVS friends and American and Vietnamese colleagues from Rural Affairs. He received the Vietnam Civilian Service Medal for service in Vietnam.

In 1967, Tom and family were assigned to Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand’s major city, to help with developmental programs to boost the economy of local hill tribes. The family reveled in lush, tropical Thailand. Luche was key to the creation of Border Crafts of Thailand, a successful venture that used U.S assistance to provide equipment, advice, and standards for local people to use local materials to craft marketable items, such as shirts, jewelry, bows and arrows, and other items popular with visitors. The enterprise attained commercial success and continued as a self-sustaining venture. Another area of activity was rural road-building, carried out with help from US Navy Seabeees. On one trip, driving briskly along a new section of road, Tom took a sharp turn onto a fork that had been washed away, careening downhill and overturned in a creek bed. He was awarded the HRH The Princess Mother’s Memorial Medal for service to the nation.

The next overseas assignment was in 1974 to Ouagadougou in Upper Volta (today, Burkina Faso), where Luche was in charge of rural development matters for the AID mission. While there he redirected an agricultural research project to emphasize soil and water conservation and developed technology that restored 15percent of degraded land to production. A posting to Arusha in Northern Tanzania followed, where Luche was the AID coordinator and also doubled as honorary consul, an often demanding job in this area popular with American tourists and congressional delegations heading for nearby safari tours. The Luches loved this beautiful region, despite its calamitous economic conditions. Tom spent much time with regional herdsmen and concentrated on village development projects and such priorities as improved wheat cultivation.

Following a tour in Washington, The Luches went off to Accra, Ghana (1983-85), where Tom was the general development officer for the AID mission and at various times acting AID director. Following another US posting, the next assignment was as the AID representative in Cape Verde (1987 – 1992), an area facing major problems of erosion and drought. Luche led an effort to plant 4 million trees to stabilize the environment, and helped establish the nation’s first Peace Corps program. He also worked closely with the American Embassy on policy reform, persuading the Cape Verdean government to develop democratic policies which helped to establish the nation’s first two-party system, a sharp contrast to the personalized single party model prevailing in much of Africa. Cape Verde, so challenging professionally, was rewarding personally and let Tom indulge two of his favorite activities, fishing and sailing. Tom was an avid tester of one of the American Embassy’s evacuation means, the official “evacuation vessel.”

Luche was transferred directly from Cape Verde to Burkina Faso, this time as AID director. This assignment, 1992-94, was his last AID posting. Tom retired in 1995.

Tom and Winnie bought a house in Mount Dora, Florida, and moved there in 2000. Tom continued his lifelong passions of fishing and boating, and voracious reading in literature, history, biography and poetry. He was active in local affairs such as Mount Dora’s annual music festival. The Lake Symphony Orchestra was established in Mount Dora while he served on the festival Board. For 11years he was a guardian ad litem for abused and abandoned children, representing them legally in the absence of a family member. Drawing on his language skills, he worked especially with local Haitian and Vietnamese children. Tom was also prominent in church affairs at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in nearby Eustis, Florida.

Roy O. Carlson, a retired Foreign Service officer, died in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on June 24, 2014, at the age of 93. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he served overseas in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946. In 1951, he received his master’s degree from the University of Chicago.

Mr. Carlson entered the Foreign Service in 1953 and was assigned to Dhaka as an administrative officer. He was posted to Stockholm two years later as an economic officer. In 1959, he was detailed to the University of Chicago to study economics. He served as an economic officer in Copenhagen from 1960 to 1965. After a year at State, where he was involved in textile negotiations, he was seconded to the Department of Agriculture, where he worked on supplying American grain to developing countries under Public Law 480. In 1966 he was detailed to the Department of Transportation as an international liaison official. He served in the Office of the Inspector General of Foreign Assistance from 1970 to 1973, traveling widely to countries receiving U.S. aid. In 1973, he was assigned to Stuttgart as a commercial officer. His last assignment before he retired in 1978 was to the Board of Examiners.

Mr. Carlson’s wife, the former Margaret Tannenberg, died some years ago. He leaves their children, William and Brigitta Carlson.

Robert Andrew Thompson, a retired Foreign Service Reserve officer with the U.S. Agency for
International Development, died on July 4, 2014, at the age of 86. He lived in Arlington, Virginia.

Born in Illinois, Thompson saw combat during the Korean conflict as a member of the
11th Airborne Division of the U.S. Army and attained the rank of captain. He earned his bachelor’s
degree in 1960 and his master’s degree in 1962 from the University of Chicago.

Mr. Thompson joined USAID in 1963 as a management analyst. A year later, he was assigned to Saigon, working successively as an assistant development officer, assistant provincial representative and provincial representative. In 1968, he was transferred to Bangkok as an assistant program officer. After four years at USAID headquarters, he returned to Bangkok in 1973 as a program operations officer.

In retirement, Mr. Thompson perfected his golf game, primarily at the Army-Navy Club course in Arlington. Mr. Thompson leaves Marian O’Connor Thompson, his wife of 56 years.

Neil Dimick of New Braunfels, Texas, a pioneer in irrigation water management, passed away on April 4. 2014, at the age of 87. Neil became a key contributor of professional accomplishments to irrigation water management because of his involvement with USAID in Pakistan beginning in 1967. Consequent to previous work by USAID in Turkey, Neil was the leader in bringing small scraper and land plane units to Pakistan for development and refinement in an evolving new farm water management program.

Neil found small industries in Pakistan, particularly Ghazi industry, that were willing to continuously become involved in improving the effectiveness of the machines needed for precision leveling of small fields. This included with time the adaptation of the land leveling machines to laser controls for improved precision leveling operations.

Neil worked with the industries to improve the machines. He also became involved in identifying groups supporting farmers to help provide them with precision land leveling services. This involved finding young engineers who could be trained to provide effective land leveling services. His dedication, service, cooperation, and collaboration to effectively train and support these personnel and their needs became a keynote of his involvement in ensuring the success of this effort. Today, there are many precision leveled fields in Pakistan with private entities providing an effective service and larger and larger areas of farms and fields that are precision leveled. Neiil also supported the development of supplemental equipment that provided farmers with the capability to use tractor power for more effective farming operations.

Precision leveled fields are essential to good water management and optimum crop production. Having the equipment and supporting units that effectively provide this service is an essential part of productive irrigated agriculture. The precision land leveling (PLL) service and supporting units became the necessary components for water conservation and increasing food production.

There were many individuals and units that contributed to an effective irrigation water management program especially the farm water management program that evolved in Pakistan. The plan that provided effective equipment and personnel for precision leveled fields was a key to the success of this effort. Hence, this supported on-site demonstrations of the process to local farmers in their own fields. Farmers often saved several times the water normally used for irrigation and increased yields by several magnitudes. These impacts created interest, participation and effective programs for farmers, Pakistani officials in supporting organizations, and donor units involved in Pakistan. Neil’s precision land leveling technology was one of the key keys to this success. Today, increased farm areas are precision leveled every year using Neil’s technology.

The impact of this program in Pakistan caused many donor organizations and countries to make farm water management and improved irrigation water management the key emphasis of development in countries around the world. Previous to the Pakistan Program, farm water management was left out of most such development programs. Pakistan now exports many precision land leveling units to other countries.

Neil Dimick was involved in similar programs in Egypt from 1977 to 1982 and in India from 1982 to1986. Precision land leveling technologies were key components in these farm water management programs. In Egypt he was awarded a Meritorious Honor Award by the U. S. Agency for International Development for his work in irrigation water management. His emphases in adapting and improving precision land leveling in Egypt and India were an important part of his contribution.

Neil’s professional career began with his work in irrigation water management while completing his B. S. and M. S. in agricultural engineering at South Dakota State University. He then worked for ten years for the Agricultural Research Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. His initial international work in Pakistan was with Tipton and Kalmbach, an engineering consulting firm. He then began his work with USAID.

Neil and Lillian Dimick had three sons, Craig, Brad, and Dan. Craig, and his wife, Thea have two daughters, Crystal and Carmel. Carmel has given Neil two great grand children, Sierra and Landon. Brad and Laurene have one daughter, Abigail. Dan and Jayne have two children, Daisy and Donald. Neil was preceded in death by Lillian in 2004. His wife, Theresa, survives him. Theresa and Neil were married in 2007. Their children include Renee Luciani Psaras and Marcia Luciani. Their granddaughters include Nicole Chammas and Samantha Chammas.

Dr. Willard Harold Boynton, “Doc,” died Aug. 3, 2014 on Monhegan Island, surrounded by three generations of his family along With his caregiver.

Doc was born April 9, 1914, to parents, Willard Rollins Boynton and Fronie (Fletcher) Boynton In Groveland, Mass.

Doc graduated from the University of Massachetts with a bachelor of the arts degree, Yale University with a master’s of public health and Tufts University with a medical degree. He practiced family medicine in Bethel and was the school physician for Gould Academy from 1944-1956. He then joined the State Department, USAID branch, for a long career in overseas Public Health projects. While with USAID he worked in several continents and many countries throughout the world.

His first post was in Viet Nam for seven years. Among his accomplishments was the building of a medical school in Saigon and work eradicating malaria throughout the country. His career in later years was in population control for which he received a distinguished award from the U.S. Congress.

Doc was predeceased by his wife Ruth of 64 years (D-2003) and his sister Marion. His beloved older brother James died two days before him.

Doc leaves his five children, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. His children include David Boynton of Brunswick, Susan Koerher of Dunbarton, N.H., Douglas and Willard Boynton of Monhegan Island and Sally Boynton of Weston, Conn. Grandchildren are Marisa and Claire Boynton of Monhegan Island, Heather Nunes of Sudbury, Mass., Sara Galantowicz of Arlington, Mass. and Christopher Koerber of North Haven.

Jeremiah E. Parson, 77, passed away at his residence on August 10, 2014. Born in Albany, he is the son of the late Jerome and Evelyn Parson.

Jeremiah worked at the university of Wisconsin before starting out as one of the first Peace Corp Volunteers to Tanzania. An avid fan of race car driving, he competed in the East African Safari Rally in Kenya and decided to work in Africa for many years in Peace Corps and later for USAID. He was a member of several associations, including The Lions Club and The Harley Davidson Motorcycle club. He had travelled to many parts of the world making lifelong friends and scrabble buddies.

He is survived by a sister, Elnora Willingham, and his three children Adam, Bharat and Lisa Parson and two grandchildren Cameron Parson and Tristan Parson

Jean Pinder, a pioneer in advanced professional education for African American women, died peacefully September 7, 2014 after a short illness. Born September 2, 1916, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and her RN certification from UC- Berkeley in 1940. She taught in the nursing program at Dillard University, 1942-46, and went on to graduate from Yale School of Public Health in 1947, among the first African American women to do so.

She joined the U.S. Public Health Service in 1953, was among the first US State Department Agency for International Development personnel serving in pre- and early post-Independence-era Africa in Liberia, Ghana, and, in her later career, as the Washington-based USAID consultant for Maternal and Child Health across North Africa.

She retired in 1982 to Tucson, Arizona, where she remained active in community public health actions, the Episcopal Church, and as a violinist for the Community Orchestra of Tucson. Cataclysmic onset of dementia forced her relocation with her long-time friend Elouise Duncan, the first African American woman to graduate from Yale’s School of Nursing, into the home of Elouise’s son, Jean’s godson, Henry, his wife Magdeline and their children, in Gaithersburg, MD. The Duncans cared for both women through Elouise’s death in 2007 and then for Jean until a hip fracture in 2012 required long-term residential care. Jean is survived by the Duncan family, that of her step-son, Dr. Frank Pinder, Jr., and friends who loved her very much.

Robert Gaul, age 77, passed away September 16, 2014 in Fairfax, VA. He had Alzheimer’s disease.

Son of Robert Louis and Doris Broker Gaul, born March 2, 1932 in White Plains, NY, he was a graduate of White Plains High School, class of 1949. After being drafted and serving time in the Army, he attended the University of Colorado, graduating in 1961 with a degree in Business Administration.

He joined the USAID Foreign Service in 1965 and was a Program Officer stationed in Manila, Saigon, and Bangkok. In 1992, he earned his Master of Library Science degree from the University of Maryland.

His marriage to Barbara Jean McLaughlin ended in divorce. His survivors include son, Todd Eric of Carrboro, NC, Tracy Ellen (Mrs. Matt) Prostko and grandson Trip Prosko of Austin, TX, brother Ronald of Ft. Collins, CO, several cousins, and longtime companion, Joyce Simmons of Fairfax, VA.

Karl Mathiasen III of Washington, DC, a community leader and adviser to many charities, passed peacefully while in hospice care on September 20, 2014 at the age of 88. He was predeceased by his wife Elizabeth Howard Mathiasen in 2007. He is survived by his son Tim of Pennington, NJ, daughters Elizabeth Tillson and Ann Farquhar as well as six grandchildren – Andrew, Tyler, Madison, Sarah, Logan and Lynn.

Mr. Mathiasen was an Army veteran of World War II and graduated from Princeton University in 1949. He went on to earn a Masters degree from Columbia University School of International Affairs in 1951.

Mr. Mathiasen served with the Agency for International Development from 1951 to 1963. He served in North Africa and as Chief of the Policy Planning Division. After USAID, he was a senior staff member of the Brookings Institution and he was Executive Vice President of the University of North Africa Association. In 1972, he founded the Planning and Management Assistance Project of the Center for Community Change, which became the Management Assistance Group (MAG) in 1980. At the MAG, he provided management counseling and organizational analysis to many nonprofit groups, including the National Resources Defense Council, Amnesty International USA, and Children’s Defense Fund, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, various AIDS related charities and many community foundations. He was recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on board and staff dynamics and board development. He retired in 1995. He served on the boards of over 35 charities and faith-based groups, among them the New World Foundation, where he served as President, the Winston Foundation for World Peace, the Center for Theology and Public Policy, the International Women’s Health Coalition, D.C. Citizens for Better Public Education and the Moriah Fund. He also was active in the Episcopal Church and served as Vice Chairman of the Board for Theological Education.