Archive | 2016

Curtis Farrar, 89, who retired about 15 years ago as director of finance and administration at the International Food Policy Research Institute, died Nov. 22 at his home in Washington. The cause was congestive heart failure, said a son, Douglas Farrar.

Dr. Farrar was born in New York City and had lived in the Washington area since 1963. He joined the institute in the mid-1990s after having been a World Bank agricultural research officer, a member of the State Department planning staff, a technical assistance specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development and an officer of the Asia Foundation.

Janet Allem passed away late Friday night, December 9, 2016 in the presence of her family, after a tough battle with cancer. Janet is survived by her loving daughter, Melia Allem of Arlington, VA; her mother, Rubye Connatser of Arlington, VA; her father and step-mother Johnny and Barbara Allem of Washington, DC; her brother and sister-in-law, John and Kathy Allem of Fairfax, VA’ and by her adoring niece and nephew, Katiana and Jacob Allem of Fairfax, VA.

Janet earned a BS Degree from Barnard College in New York, and a Masters Degree from George Washington University. She was a brilliant and accomplished woman who made life-long friendships wherever she went. She retired from the US Agency for International Development after a long and distinguished career.

On Sunday, December 11, 2016 Mattaniah Eytan of Mill Valley, CA and formerly of Washington, DC passed away. Born in Tel Aviv in 1934 to the late Benjamin and Molly Epstein, he came to the US as a child, studied at the Ramaz Day School in New York, graduated from Columbia Universi ty, the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Zurich. Inspired by his Zionist upbringing, he changed his last name to Eytan (“strength”) as a young man.

He was Assistant General Counsel at the State Department – Agency for International Development 1964 to 1971 and then a partner in the DC law firm of Kaplan, Russin & Vecchi. In 1976, he moved to San Francisco to head the firm’s CA office and in 1981 he successfully argued a case before the US Supreme Court. He subsequently founded his own law practice in the Bay area and diligently represented his many clients over the past two decades.

A man of many interests, he had a keen and insightful mind and was passionate about the law, politics, art, history and Israel. Funeral and interment took place December 14, 2016 in the Gan Yarok section of Fernwood Cemetery, Mill Valley, CA.

Charles Billand, 76, an urban planner who since 1996 was president and managing partner of TCG International, died Dec. 6 at his home in Lovettsville, Va. The cause was cancer, said a daughter, Michelle Painter.

Mr. Billand was born in Detroit. He came to the Washington area in 1974 as deputy director of the Redevelopment and Housing Authority of Fairfax County. Over the next two decades, he held a variety of jobs related to planning and development, including a stint in New Delhi from 1990 to 1995 with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Thomas Darrell Verner (age 98) passed away on Saturday, December 10, 2016, in Bethesda, MD after a brief illness. Oldest son of the late Tom and Gracie Verner, Darrell is survived by his wife of 67 years, Jerry; son, Douglas (Diane) of Maryland; daughter, Cheryl McCarthy (Michael) of South Carolina; grandchildren, Taylor Casey (Peter), Alexandra Harrison (Matthew), Thomas McCarthy (Rebecca) and Austin Verner; four great-grandchildren; brother, Afton of Texas and sister, Carolyn Brent of Texas.

Darrell Verner served as USAID Controller (before the Chief Financial Officer position was established) throughout the 1970s.  It is believed that he retired from USAID in the early 1980s.  Darrell was very active in the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) during its earliest days, bringing together financial professionals from across government.

World traveler, wine and food connoisseur, and loyal American dedicated to helping people in developing countries make important changes in their lives, Gary Mansavage was born in Coos Bay (then called Marshfield), Oregon, Feb. 15, 1941, the only child of Theodore Mansavage and Leola Winifred Moore Mansavage. He left us on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2016 at age 75, of undetermined natural causes after a lifetime of international experience and leadership roles.

Gary grew up in Portland, and as a youth ascended from enthusiastic Boy Scout to commendable Eagle Scout, an accomplishment of which he was very proud. He went on to attend Roosevelt High School (the Rough Riders) where he was active (and remarkable) in sports, including softball, football, and student leadership. He was elected Student Body President his senior year – and still has the gavel to prove it! He treasured those years and friendships from Roosevelt, and became active in the alumni group which directed fund-raising efforts for improvement in the school, both academically and athletically. He attended Willamette University (becoming a member of Beta Theta Pi) and made lifelong friendships there as he did at Roosevelt. After receiving an undergraduate degree at Willamette, he attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C, where he received the degree of Master of Arts in Government.

Gary was recruited by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to serve in multiple locations throughout the world to help direct programs which would provide aid and economic development strategies for countries needing guidance in those areas. During these years, he served our country in hardship and danger assignments as a Senior Advisor to the US-Asia Environmental Partnership, Director of the USAID Office of Afghanistan Affairs, the USAID Representative in Beirut, Assistant Director at the USAID Mission in Kampala, Uganda, and Foreign Service Officer in Beirut. Other overseas assignments included France, Bangladesh, and Liberia. Desk assignments included operations for Thailand, Burma, Morocco and Zaire. Following his USAID service, Gary founded an independent company devoted to providing business development, management, technical and legal services to help American companies penetrate higher risk international markets.

Gary leaves a multitude of friends across the globe who will miss him deeply. His survivors include daughter, Daniella Latham and son-in-law Orlando Kalossakas; and son, Garth Swanson.

Helen Louise French Ide, wife of former Mission Director Carter Ide, was born in Omaha, NE on June 19, 1924, the only child of William E. and Edna E. French. Her people were from Kansas and Indiana, but she grew up in Boulder City, NV, where her parents migrated during the Depression. Her memories of Las Vegas went back to when it was home to tent neighborhoods with dusty roads where she and her mother lived while her father helped to build Boulder (now Hoover) Dam and the homes that became Boulder City. All her life, she would gladly describe herself as a “desert rat.” She was valedictorian of the first graduating class of Boulder City High School, and Phi Beta Kappa at Pomona College where she majored in Spanish and music.

Helen married William Carter Ide in 1949 and accompanied him to Washington, DC and Foreign Service posts in Denmark, France, Pakistan, Dominican Republic, India and Nepal. While traveling the world, she raised seven children and graciously fulfilled the social expectations of the diplomatic life. In each new location, Helen was noted for her interest in others and in different cultures, and for her contributions as a Spanish teacher, church organist, pianist, singer, and volunteer. She loved babies, dogs, walks, afternoon tea, sweet things, music, mountains and deserts. In her later years she described herself as a “Zen Episcopalian,” and she followed a daily spiritual practice until she became too frail to continue.

Helen was predeceased by her husband, Carter, in 2007, and her grandson Will in 1996. She is survived by her seven children: Gretchen Kossack (Bob) of Shrewsbury, MA; David Ide (Lian Hu) of Bethesda, MD; Jennifer Taylor-Ide of Franklin, WV; Rebecca Lowe (Tom) of Ojai, CA; Peter Ide (Safa Ghani) of Abijan, Ivory Coast; Susan Patton (Paul) of Vienna, VA; and Nicholas Ide (Laure Redifer) of Washington, DC; eleven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. The family includes in its circle Celestine Denys of Milford, CT; Daniel Taylor of Franklin, WV; Meri Siegel of Falls Church, VA; Julie Ide of Portland, OR; Shree Sharma and family of Olympia, WA and Rita Gurung and family of New York City. The family is very grateful to the many kind and dedicated individuals who provided care to our mother over the past several years, including Shukria Hassan, Jia-ying Liu, and foremost among them Isatu Roberts, who also cared for our father at the end of his life.

Robbin Burkhart passed away on Saturday, March 4, in Texas.

He had an illustrious 27-year career as one of USAID’s finest Controllers and a Senior Foreign Service Officer.  He served in Haiti, The Gambia, Ukraine Regional, Ghana Regional, Afghanistan, and Washington.  He retired in December 2016 from USAID Kenya and East Africa where he served from 2013.  Robbin has touched many lives and will be remembered fondly.

Jerry Lipson, a former reporter who worked for a decade and a half as an aide to Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, died Feb. 28 at a skilled nursing facility in Springfield, Va. He was 81. The cause was complications from cancer, said his son, Jonathan C. Lipson.

Gerald Lipson was born in Chicago on Aug. 27, 1935. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Roosevelt University in Chicago in 1957 and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in 1961.

In the 1960s, Mr. Lipson reported for publications including the Wilmington News Journal in Delaware, the old Washington Star and the old Chicago Daily News, where he covered the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the legal case of James Earl Ray, who assassinated civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

In the early 1970s, Mr. Lipson embarked on a career on Capitol Hill. He was press secretary for Sen. Charles H. Percy (R-Ill.) and Rep. John B. Anderson (R-Ill.), according to his son, as well as for Rep. John J. Rhodes (R-Ariz.) during his tenure as House minority leader and for the House International Relations Committee under Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.).

In the 1980s, Mr. Lipson returned to journalism, reporting for the New York Post and the Chicago Sun-Times. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, he was spokesman for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Mr. Lipson was a delegate to the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit and campaign manager for Maryland state delegate Constance A. Morella (R) when she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986. His memberships included the Washington Press Club.

Survivors include his wife of 56 years, the former Lois Zittler of Alexandria, Va.; two children, Jonathan C. Lipson of Philadelphia and Greg Lipson of Sykesville, Md.; a sister; and four grandchildren.