Archive | 2017

Diane Skelly Ponasik passed away on November 17, 2017, after a short illness, in Washington, DC. Diane was born in San Francisco on April 9, 1939.

Diane graduated from William and Mary College in 1961. After working a short time as a travel agent in New York City, she became a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. Her Peace Corps Activities motivated her to pursue graduate studies, earning a PhD in anthropology from the State University of New York in Binghamton. She continued her interest in international development as a democracy officer with USAID from 1977 to 20002. In retirement Diane was a docent at the Freer-Sackler gallery in Washington, DC, specializing in Islamic art and she was an officer with the Tangier American Legation Institute for American Studies (TALIM). She also wrote the novel, Tangier.

Diane is survived by her husband, Gerald; daughter Amal Disparte (Dante Disparte); brothers Jack and Edward, and grandchildren Andalus, Messina, and Nero

Frederick “Rick” Machmer died November 18, 2017 in his home in Alexandria, Virginia. He was 77. The cause of death was complications from pancreatic cancer, resulting in heart failure.

Dr. Machmer was born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania and subsequently spent his younger years in Akron, Ohio until he enrolled in Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio as an undergraduate student. After earning his degree at Mount Union, he attended Cornell University where he received a Doctorate in International Law. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Nigeria and Liberia,

Machmer was a Senior Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Minister Counselor, who served as USAID Mission Director in seven overseas posts in his 35-year career, including Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Nepal, and Tbilisi, Georgia. In addition to his role as USAID Director, he served as Director of the USAID/Washington Office of Middle East Affairs, an office which included Iraq in its portfolio. At that time, he was also named acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Asia/Near East Bureau. His work as Senior Foreign Service Officer included extensive roles in the Middle East – as Head of the 1994 U.S. Government Delegation to the regional Middle East Peace Conference in Cairo, Egypt; as USAID Disaster Resistance Team (DART) leader for Afghanistan (2001); and as Senior Development Advisor, Senior Deputy Civilian Representative, and Chief of the Office of Stabilization, Regional Command-East, Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan (2009-2010). He also led USAID disaster response efforts in Ethiopia and Georgia in 2000.

Dr. Machmer earned numerous awards during his career, including the 2001 State Department Group Meritorious Honor Award “For outstanding sustained effort to prevent a human catastrophe in Ethiopia,” the 1992 Presidential Meritorious Honor Award from George H.W. Bush, a USAID Distinguished Honor Award (1988), and, in 1985, a USAID Superior Honor Award.

Dr. Machmer spent the nearly 25 years in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia. He is survived by his beloved Golden Labrador Retriever, Jessie, who has a new home with a caring family in the neighborhood. Surviving relatives are cousins Joan Altmayer (Parma, Ohio), Mike McDonnell (Mashpee, MA), and Pat (McDonnell) Long (Dade City, Florida). Most notably, Dr. Machmer will be greatly missed by family, friends and colleagues throughout the world and his neighborhood family.

John Ronald (J.R.) Morgan, 73, passed away on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2017, at his home in Islamabad, Pakistan.   John, a native of Sale Creek, TN, is survived by his wife, Virginija Morgan and his daughter, Johnna Beth Morgan.   He was born on August 14, 1944, to the late Eschol and Gladys Morgan, and was preceded in his death by his brother Fred L. Morgan.

John Morgan joined USAID in 1985, as the energy officer at the USAID Mission in Pakistan. Afterward, he served in various positions in the USAID E&E Bureau and missions in Lthuania, Bulgaria, Egypt, the Central Asian Republics and again in Pakistan. Prior to USAID, he worked for NASA and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

John was a kind person, patient, willing to share his knowledge and experience with colleagues, and provided a calm voice even during times of unusual pressure. He will be missed greatly by those who had the honor and privilege of knowing him.

The family requests that donations be made to the American Cancer Society or other charitable organization of your choice in lieu of flowers.

Dr. Clarence Cornelius Gray III Clarence Gray, professor, international agronomist and a retired principal officer with the Rockefeller Foundation died peacefully November 5, 2017. He was surrounded by his loving wife of 59 years, Shirley, daughter, Michele and sons Clarence (IV) and Sean.

He was born in Ridge Springs, SC, July 23, 1917, but his early years were spent in Virginia and in New York where he graduated from Hempstead High School. Virginia State College, now University, played a very important role in his life. In 1939, as a 22 year old freshman, he ran out of money and received a campus job that enabled him to remain in school. With the help of supportive staff he lived at the college year round. It became his home where he remained for three and a half years. During the course of his studies, he achieved honor roll each term. He made scholastic scientific honor societies, was in the student council and graduated Second in the class of 1943. Years later, after WWII and graduate school (MS, PhD, Michigan State University), he returned to the college as a faculty member. Within a few years, he was a hard charging young professor of Agronomy. At the Centennial Commencement in 1982, he was awarded Doctor of Laws degree.

In 1958, after marrying Shirley Brown, Warsaw, Virginia, he took a leave of absence from his alma mater and accepted a two year appointment to Nepal as a Foreign Service Officer with the United States Agency International Development. Two years of service with USAID grew into nearly thirteen years. He received assignments in four countries and one Department of State assignment as Officer in Charge of Ceylon-Nepal affairs. In addition, he was sent to the School for Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University, for intensive study in economic development. He worked for 40 plus years with international assistance agencies in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, to help solve food and income problems of people in developing nations and with low income farmers in the Southeastern United States. Between 1958 -63, he was an Agronomy Advisor, Government of Nepal where he helped develop an agricultural research and extension system. 1964 – 65 he was visiting professor of agricultural Extension, Alexandria University, Egypt. He established the first baccalaureate curriculum in agricultural extension which is credited for modernizing farming in the Nile Delta. In 1966, his work with the Government of Jordan resulted in an irrigation system and agricultural service center in the Jordan Valley. From 1967 – 70, as Chief of the USAID, Agriculture Inputs Division , New Delhi, India he helped drive India’s Green Revolution to avert possible famines in the 1960s. In 1970, while on USAID assignment to India, he was recruited by the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) to supervise their programs in Asia and to be their representative on the Board of Trustees of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Las Banos, PhillippinesHe was on the Board of Trustees of IRRI for 12 years with the last six as Chairman. He was subsequently appointed by RF to develop a crop gene bank for the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing, China. Today, it is one of the largest facilities for the preservation of crop seeds and genetic materials in the world.

Upon retiring from the RF in 1983, he joined the faculty of Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA where he received the designation of Professor Emeritus International Studies. He continued his involvement in international activities as President of CCG Associates, an international agricultural research and development consultancy firm. He received numerous awards and honors for his accomplishments. In 1979, he received a Doctor of Laws degree from Morehouse College. In 1990, he received the Joseph C. Wilson ($10,000) award for outstanding contributions to the alleviation of hunger and poverty in low income, food deficit nations of the world. In 1991, he was the first recipient of the W. Averell Harriman International Service award.

He was a retired officer and veteran of WWII and the Korean War with active service in the US and Japan and reserve duty in France and Turkey. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha college fraternity, the society of Sigma Xi national science honorary, Gamma Sigma Delta, the honor society of Agriculture, The Washington chapter of Guardsmen and a “Distinguished Archon” of northern Virginia Beta Nu chapter of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity. He was a resident of Fairfax City for 34 years.

On Dec. 8, 2017, former USAID Foreign Service Officer Calvin Lindsay Elmendorf, aged 70, passed away in Placerville, CA, after a 30-year battle with a malignant brain tumor.

In the early 70s, Lindsay joined the Foundation for Cooperative Housing in Washington, D.C., followed by an overseas contract with USAID’s Regional Housing and Urban Development Office in Tegucigalpa from 1978 to 1980.

After a second stint with FCH in D.C., Lindsay joined USAID, working with the illustrious team at RHUDO in the Universal North building on Connecticut Ave. Assignments in Quito (1986 to1991) and New Delhi (1994 to 1998) followed. After his return to D.C. and facing continuing medical treatment, Lindsay retired to Sarasota, FL. There, he met and married his second wife, Joan Chodak of Charlevoix, Michigan in April 2005.

Throughout his career, Lindsay brought intelligence, thoughtfulness, compassion and humor. Throughout his life, he fought a hard battle with cancer and won.

Lindsay is survived by his son Stirling Elmendorf and daughter-in- law Kumiko Elmendorf of Tokyo, Japan; son Byron Elmendorf and daughter-in- law Miranda Capriotti of Camino, CA, and former spouse, Donna Ayerst of Placerville. He is also survived by his sister, Susan Roberts of Hudson, WI.

George Coleman (91) passed away peacefully on December 10, 2017.

Longtime residents of McLean VA, George and his wife Peggie moved to Good Shepherd Village in Endwell NY in 2016. Born in 1926 in Washington, DC to George and Annie Coleman, he was one of four children (siblings Thomas, Catherine, and Robert).

After World War II service in the US Navy, George married Margaret Bakeman (Peggie), graduated from George Washington University and embarked on a career in international development including serving as Peace Corps Director in Brazil, working at the US Agency for International Development, and consulting in public health, family planning, and youth development (including programs for street children). While at USAID, he fit in a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and a posting to the OECD in Paris France, Peggie’s birthplace.

Not one to “retire”, George later became a certified family therapist, using his linguistic fluency to work with diverse families, and studied sculpture. Over his career, George traveled to 88 countries and became fluent in several languages. He was an unequivocal advocate for civil rights and led by his own example.

George loved words, entertaining with puns and delighting in crossword puzzles. Following his mother, a pianist for the silent movies, and his father, a gifted jazz drummer, George was an accomplished pianist who generously shared his music with others. His sculptures fill our homes.

George gave far more than he took, and turned strangers into friends wherever he went. He is survived by brother Robert F Coleman of Centreville, VA; wife Peggie of Endwell NY; four children, Heather Struck (Kent) of Vestal NY, Leslie Adkins (Alden) of Santa Rosa CA, Tito (Eric) Coleman (Marie Lichtenberg) of Laurel MD, and Sean Coleman (Caroline MacCormac) of Dublin Ireland; nine grandchildren, Gabriel Struck, Jesse Struck, Miranda Struck Blechman, Erin Adkins, Christopher Jorge Adkins, Zoe Adkins, Sara Coleman Hernandez, Alison Coleman, and Jonah Coleman; and five great grandchildren, Annie and Lucy Struck, Nora Blechman, William Struck, and Adrian Ventimiglia.

Paul Shields, 92, died December 5, 2017 at the Westminster Manor in Bradenton, Florida of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Born April 14, 1925, in East Boston, the youngest son of his late parents the Medford, Massachusetts Ferry Boat Captain, Owen S. Shields of County Louth, Ireland and Veronica Campbell of East Boston. Paul graduated Saint Clement High School in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1942, and joined the US Navy in 1943 as Quartermaster 3rd class, was part of the Invasion of Normandy, and discharged in 1946. Married Geraldine Shields, daughter of the late Melba and Archie Frazer of Lansing, Michigan, in 1950 and had 4 children.

He obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees from Michigan State University in Criminal Justice and Police Training, and subsequently joined the FBI in 1951, with assignments in Denver, Detroit, New Orleans and New York City. Later contracted by Michigan State University to train the South Vietnamese National Police force in 1959. In 1962, joined the United States Agency for International Development, as Foreign Service Inspector, with assignments in Pakistan, Korea, South Vietnam, and Panama. While on Foreign Service assignments, Paul traveled frequently and extensively throughout the region with his family, though they maintained a permanent residence in Fairfax, Virginia. Paul retired as Director of Inspections and Investigations for USAID in 1979.

Upon retirement, Paul accepted senior criminal justice administrative assignments that took him and his wife to Annapolis, Maryland and Huntsville, Texas. They ultimately retired to Longboat Key, Florida, while also residing in Highland Ranch, Colorado, where they developed many loving and supportive friendships. Paul and Gerry maintained their well-traveled lifestyle RV-ing across the continental United States numerous times and journeying to Alaska and Mexico. In retirement Paul made time to become a generous and active member of the St. Vincent’s Society in both Colorado and Florida, and the Still Point House of Prayer in Bradenton, Florida. Paul’s wife of 59 years, Geraldine Shields, predeceased him. He is survived by his four children; Maureen Shields Grosshuesch and her husband Peter Grosshuesch of Breckinridge, Colorado; Melba Shields of Port Richey, Florida; Patrick Shields and his wife Mary Shields of Norwalk, Connecticut; and Terrance Shields and his wife Dawn Smith Shields of Littleton, Colorado; as well as seven grandchildren.

Verne W. Newton who passed away, 73 years young on September 29, 2017.

Verne was one of a kind: brilliant, iconoclastic, higher-cause driven, irreverently honest, Mark Twain hilarious, self-deprecating, a fearless co-conspirator in making a difference, and a profoundly devoted friend. Fiercely independent and always marching to his own drummer, Verne was the refreshing antidote to conventional thinking and doing, with special appreciation of the absurdities and conundrums of life. Who else, in 1965 at the age of 21 would journey “solo”, overland, across borders from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa, with virtually no money in his pocket? Who else would have published a Washington Post Op-Ed piece on the positive correlation between the Beaujolais Nouveau crop in France with the winner of US Presidential elections. He was a talented athlete in his younger days. As a friend (and partner in practical jokes), Verne had a zest for sports as a metaphor for Life with all its human challenges, epiphanies, craziness, failures and glories. His uncommon focus, energy and spirit burned within him as an amateur hockey player in small-town Iowa and propelled him to St Cloud State University, Minnesota. He studied history at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University when America was wandering blindly into war in Vietnam. After hockey and baseball injuries to his knees, Verne shifted his brilliant talents, incisive and disciplined mind, and love for our country into politics as a “contact sport”.

Verne was fiercely passionate about history, its lessons, and leaders of change in America and the world. He was an early voice in New York’s anti-war and progressive political movements while working with Howard Samuels, Adam Walinsky, Harold Ickes and others. This led to his involvement in the presidential campaigns of Senators Eugene McCarthy, Robert Kennedy and George McGovern. Jimmy Carter’s victory brought Verne to Washington, DC as a key deputy to former Ohio Governor John Gilligan, the new Administrator at USAID, where he took up new challenges in foreign assistance and global development. He then began research on President Franklin Roosevelt’s leadership team during the New Deal and World War II, and post-war Soviet/US Cold War espionage. As Director of the FDR Presidential Library in Hyde Park, Verne hosted, among others, the visits of former President Clinton and Soviet PM Gorbachev, and a history-making summit on Bosnia with Russian President Boris Yeltsin. At Marist University, he was Director of the James A. Cannavino Library (and Adjunct Professor of History and Political Science) where he pioneered the archive’s leading edge digital transformation.

His work has appeared in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Los Angeles Times, the Nation, among other US and European publications. His final unfinished project was a trailblazing new book: “The Far Side of Glory: Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt and the War on the Eastern Front”, bringing new insights into the roles of these WWII national leaders and new interpretations/narratives of pivotal wartime decisions and their longer-term consequences.

Verne delighted in his chosen role as “Uncle Verne” to the children of his closest friends. He left us too early, and we carry his spirit with us into a future that he worked tirelessly to help effect. He is survived by his sister, Sandra Newton of Iowa; his brother, Robert Newton; Fouzia Bassime Newton, lifetime devoted companion and her two boys Amir and Aimanhis.

As a youth growing up in West New York, NJ., Joseph Guardiano (1931 – 2017), wanted most to see the world and learn a lot – and so he did. The Air Force took him to England, and to Savannah, GA, where in spare time he earned an AA at Armstrong College. The GI Bill paid for his education at Columbia College, NYC, and his Master’s at Columbia University’s School of International Affairs, where he met and married classmate Janet.

His career as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) sent him and his family to live in Chad, Niger, Thailand, Korea, the Philippines, Zaire (Congo), and Senegal. He also spent 2 years in Rome on loan to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Joe retired to Cape Coral after serving 20 years. When USAID asked him to return on contract, he and Jan moved to Mauritania, on the Sahara Desert, for 2 years. Back in the States, Joe earned his PhD in Geography (a field he chose because it covers nearly all aspects of human organization) at Clark University at age 60.

He retired again to Cape Coral and later, Fort Myers. Bitten by the political bug, he became an avid volunteer for his newly chosen political party in the 1990’s, eventually serving as county chair for 2 years. When schedule permitted, he took on short-term USAID projects to Egypt, Bratislava, etc., and teaching a series of 3-week courses to USAID officers in Latin America. Meanwhile, Edison College and FGCU met his own craving for learning. Oldest in class (including professors), he worked his way through several layers of calculus, and enjoyed literature and Florida geography courses well into his 70’s.

Those who knew him will remember Joe for his endless curiosity, his energy, and most of all his wit. His was a life well lived, and he was fortunate enough to live his dream—seeing the world—while in service to others. Joe is survived by his wife Jan; their sons Greg, John, and Jeb and Jeb’s wife Gail; his sister Sylvia and brother-in-law Frank; and his ten nieces and nephews. His brother John and sister-in-law Pat predeceased him.

John A. Hoskins, a retired Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, died on December 28, 2017, at the age of 88. He was born in Ohio.

He was awarded his bachelor’s degree in 1951 by Dartmouth College, after which he saw combat in Korea from 1951 to 1953 as a commissioned U.S. Marine officer. He earned his law degree from Ohio State University in 1957. From 1957 to 1961, he practiced law in the private and public sectors. He received his master’s degree in international relations from The George Washington University in 1969.

In 1961, Mr. Hoskins joined USAID. In 1962, he was posted to Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) as the legal advisor to the USAID mission. He was transferred to Bangkok in 1965 as a regional legal advisor. He was detailed to the former National War College for the 1967-1968 academic year. In Washington from 1968 to 1973, he was assistant general counsel for legislative affairs and housing guaranties. He was appointed assistant general counsel for Africa in June 2018 and was subsequently assigned to USAID missions in Burkina Faso and Mauritania and to the U.S. mission to the United Nations in New York as a development advisor. After he retired, Mr. Hoskins joined the U.N. Development Program and was posted to Uganda, Rwanda, Jamaica and the Bahamas.

He was married to the former Marilyn Wakeland.