Archive | 2017

MARY FRANCES LIKAR “Mitzi” Born April 13, 1949 in Akron, Ohio, died peacefully and surrounded by her family on January 10, 2017 after a battle with cancer.

Mitzi grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, OH and was a 30-year resident of Bethesda, MD. A renaissance woman, she was deeply passionate about many things including baseball, music, literature, theater and opera, walking, and yoga. She was an avid Washington Nationals fan, having held season tickets since their first opening day in 2005. She had a lifelong love of reading, dancing, music, playing the piano and guitar, and singing. Most recently she participated in Encore Chorale and Encore Rocks. Mitzi loved languages and spoke French and Spanish fluently. She was also proficient in Hungarian, Slovenian, Portuguese, and Russian.

Despite all these passions, she will be most remembered for her kindness, generosity, and her desire to help others. It was this desire that led her to join the Peace Corps after college, pursue a career in the Foreign Service, mentor Foreign Service Officers after her retirement, and teach yoga with a focus on reaching those who were intimidated by it, as well as volunteering at a local retirement home. A 15-year breast cancer survivor, she raised money for research and participated in a variety of Breast Cancer Walks, including two Avon 39-mile walks and a Komen 60-mile walk.

She was the loving and proud mother of Michelle Cruz Peverley (Evan) of Boston, MA and Marisa Likar Cruz-Glaudemans (David) of Washington, DC, her daughters by Danilo Cruz-DePaula, and grandmother of Pierce Cruz Peverley and James Carlos Cruz-Glaudemans. She was a dear sister to Linda J. Likar (Robert Clement-Jones) and Amy L. Likar (Jack Paulus) and a much beloved aunt to Alexandra Victoria Likar Clement-Jones, Hannah Marie Likar Paulus, and Joshua Frank Likar Paulus. She was predeceased by her parents, Fran and Frank Likar and her rescue dog, Mandi.

Mitzi graduated from Kent State University summa cum laude and attended with a full scholarship from Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. After four years in the Peace Corps in Cote d’Ivoire, she received her MA from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Quito, Ecuador researching women in agriculture. In 1980, she began a 30-year career with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as a program officer, private sector development officer and then deputy chief of mission with postings in Peru, Honduras, Hungary, and Slovenia. Other USAID travel took her to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sub-Saharan Africa. In 1989, she earned an MS in Management as part of Stanford University’s Sloane Program.

Ambassador Marvin Weissman passed away hours after his 90th birthday in Bethesda on January 26, 2017. Born in Cleveland, OH, he served in the US Army during WWII, received a PhB from the University of Chicago and MPA from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Copenhagen.

Ambassador Weissman had a distinguished career of public service in Latin America from 1955 to 1980. He contributed to economic development missions in Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru. He served as Director of USAID in Guatemala, Colombia, and Brazil; Director of Central American Affairs at the State Department; and Ambassador to Costa Rica and Bolivia. After retirement from the State Department, he worked at the Inter-American Development Bank 1981-1988.

Ambassador Weissman is survived by his wife, Maria Elena; his three children, Warren, Diane and Karen; and his grandchild, Sophie Curlee.

Michael Patrick McLindon passed from this life on December 22, 2016 at the age of 62 succumbing to complications from early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Mike lived his life to the fullest. He had a thirst for knowledge and a love of travel and adventure. He had an intense pride in his family, and a passionate interest in the game of baseball. He was an Economist, Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of Mensa International.

Mike was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on December 15, 1954, the first of seven children of Gerald Joseph and Agnes Cooke McLindon. While living in Castro Valley, California between 1965 and 1968, Mike began following the San Francisco Giants baseball team and developed a lifelong love of the game. He had the good fortune of getting the autograph of his favorite player, Willie Mays, and even witnessed Willie hitting historic home run number 535. The McLindon family moved to Baton Rouge in 1967 and Mike attended St. Thomas More Elementary School and Catholic High School, graduating in 1972. Mike pursued university education at Louisiana State University, a summer semester at Middlebury College, Freie Universitaet in Berlin, which he attended on a Fulbright Scholarship, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he earned a Ph.D. in Economics. He was fluent in German and French and proficient in Spanish and Russian.

After working as an economist for the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development in Cameroon and Jamaica, Mike began a career as an independent consultant specializing in privatization in emerging markets. Over the next 25 years he worked in over 30 emerging market economies to assist in transferring ownership and control of previously government-owned enterprises such as power, telecommunications, water, wastewater, hotels and ports to private ownership in a free market economy. His work included projects in Egypt, South Africa, Moldova, Bangladesh, Philippines, Slovakia, Ukraine, Albania, Ethiopia, Panama, Sri Lanka, Dominican Republic, Thailand, Cote d’Ivoire and Zambia. In 1996 Mike published the book Privatization and Capital Market Development: Strategies to Promote Economic Growth.

Mike loved adventure and travel. He was a licensed small aircraft pilot and scuba diver. He summited Mt. Kilimanjaro and trekked to the Mount Everest base camp. He traveled to over 120 countries and later in his life he began to share his love of travel with his family organizing vacation trips to Cairo, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Sicily and Istanbul.

His mother, Agnes McLindon, was the guiding light in Mike’s life, and he spent his last years under her constant care in her home. He is survived by his mother Agnes and four brothers, two sisters, in-laws and close family friends.

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of long-time USAID employee, Jerry Jordan.  Jerry started with USAID in the first year of its existence as a Clerk/Typist recruited from North Carolina back when clerk/typists were hard to come by in DC.  She worked her way up to a GS-15 as the AMS in every bureau in the Agency before going overseas as a Foreign Service Officer with the original Tiger Team in Budapest serving all of E&E.  Jerry has been presented with numerous awards over her career including the prestigious Luther I. Replogle Award for Management Improvement at the State Department.  More recently, Jerry served until her death as a Senior Management Advisor with DCHA/OTI rounding out her 49 years with USAID.

She will be remembered by much of the Foreign Service during this time for her influence on their careers when serving in the regional AMS offices and by Foreign Service Nationals around the world that she worked with on Records Management.

Jerry was truly one of a kind, and the Agency has benefited from her years of commitment to it.

She is survived by her daughter Ninette Corey, son John Jordan, grandchildren and her sister Maryann Blackwood.  The Funeral will be Monday, February 13th at 11:00 am in St. Edmonds Catholic Church in Rehoboth. Family requests that in lieu of flowers contributions in memory of Jerry be made to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.

Jerry Knoll, long time USAID officer, passed away Sunday, February 12 at Grand Oaks Senior Apartments in Washington D.C. Born in Ohio in 1924, he served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945. Jerry earned his A.B. and his M.B.A from the University of Chicago in 1947. He was a lifetime and proud member of the Harper Society at the University and was on the Visiting Committee of the Graduate School of Public Policy there since 1988.

Jerry’s career, like many of his contemporaries, began with the United States Military Government in Germany in 1948 and then with the Allied High Commission. He joined the Mutual Security Administration Mission in 1952 as Special Assistant to the Director and then spent two years with the Foreign Operations Administration before serving in the State Department as an international economist from 1955 to 1959.

He joined the International Cooperation Administration in 1959 and in 1961 he entered USAID as Deputy Director of Development Planning. Jerry is remembered as a consummate professional, friend and mentor through assignments as Director of the Office West African Affairs (1964-1968), the Office of Eastern and Southern African Affairs (1968-1976), and the Office of Near East and North African Affair (1976-1979). After retiring from AID Jerry served as Deputy Director of the Medical Programs Division at the International Rescue Committee (1979-1984).

Dr. Robert (Bob) Aten passed away on Friday February 24, 2017. He is survived by daughter Diane Aten; step daughters Caren Stearns (Frank) and Wendy Oshiki (Tim); and three grandchildren Colleen, Patrick, and Sean.

Bob was a deeply devoted father and grandfather; a brilliant economist and conversationalist. He also was a lover of chess, golf, bridge, and swimming. He lived life to the fullest, working in Indonesia for nine years, traveling extensively overseas, including to Jamaica, Egypt, Asia, and the Middle East. He served in the Army and worked for the government throughout his career, retiring from USAID. He was very loving and supportive of his friends and family, and raised his daughter Diane, on his own for many years.

Dr. William R. Miner, a resident of Arbor Glen in Bridgewater since March 2000, died there on Feb. 11, 2017. He was 92.

Actively involved in the Arbor Glen community, he was selected a Living Treasure in 2002, served as vice president and president of the Residents Association, 2004-08. In 2008-11, he was the first elected resident representative member of the Arbor Glen governing board.

Born in Wooster on April 13, 1924, he earned a B.A. degree from Hiram College (1945), an MSW from the University of Michigan (1950), a PhD. from Brandeis University (1976), and received an honorary LLD from The College of Wooster (1969).

Miner had a varied career in the USA and overseas spanning more than 50 years. He worked for the YMCA and a pilot community service delivery project in Detroit, Mich., and for the county tuberculosis association in Indianapolis, Ind.

His first overseas assignment was with the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) in an Arab village development project in Israel. He later served as the United Nations Community Development Expert to the Government of Liberia.

Miner was on the staff of the U.S. foreign aid agency (USAID) for 38 years. There were short-term assignments as community development adviser to the national governments of Korea, Tanzania and Togo. He served for four years in that capacity to the Government of Kenya, two years before and after independence. In headquarters in Washington, D.C., he worked in four geographic bureaus and four central technical bureaus. He was founding director of the Office of Urban Development, a position he held for 10 years. He was official U.S.A. delegate to international meetings in London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Manila, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Vancouver and New York, and was a permanent U.S.A. representative on the United Nations Commission on Human Settlements. Miner retired in 1998.

He was a founding member of the National Association of Social Workers and its Academy of Certified Social Workers and member emeritus of the American Public Health Association. He also was a member of The Presbyterian Church at Bound Brook, N.J. As a tenor soloist, he performed in the U.S.A. and overseas.

Surviving are his wife, LaVerne; his stepson, Edward Wright (Meghan); a foster sister, Shirley Smith; and many nieces and nephews.

Fred J. Bieganski, a former Foreign Service officer with USAID, died on December 23, 2016, at the age of 89. He was a resident of Washington, D.C. He earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from London University in 1952.  He joined USAID in 1980 and was assigned to Cairo as an infrastructure development officer.  He returned to USAID headquarters in 1986 to work in its European department.  He retired in 1994. He leaves his niece and nephew Lisa Barton and Mark Bieganski of England. His wife Eugenie died several years ago.

Yvonne Thomas, widow of USAID officer Howard F. Thomas, died February 22, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1922, she was a singer, pianist, actress and dancer. She met her husband while he was an Army Intelligence Officer stationed at the American Embassy in Istanbul in 1947. She worked for the Department of State and in her retirement she served as a Senior Docent with the Folger Shakespeare Library. In addition to her husband; her sister Regine predeceased her.

Frank Kimball lost his three year battle with myelofibrosis on December 10. He died at home. Born in Albuquerque, NM, his Osage heritage was an influence and source of pride throughout his life. To the Osage, he is “Bald Eagle”.

He attended Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland. He was captain of the football team the year Landon won the state championship. He graduated from St. George’s School in Newport, Rhode Island and went on to Yale University where he graduated with a B.A. in Economics.

He had an adventurous career in the Foreign Service, first being posted in Peru. He subsequently served as Mission Director for U.S.AID with posts in Honduras, Bolivia, Bangladesh and Egypt. After retiring from the Foreign Service he was an international consultant and acted as Executive Director of a Presidential Commission for President George H. W. Bush.

Frank loved golfing at Harbour Town and gardening at Heritage Farm where he
served as President for six years. Frank took great pride in the farm’s support of Deep Well. He leaves behind his wife of 43 years, Rosemary Kimball, his “Wild Rose” and his children Raymond, Rebecca, William, Russell, Mark and Blair Robbins who entered his life three years ago and gave him much love and happiness.

He will be remembered for his keen wit, sense of humor, intelligence, handsomeness and, perhaps, most importantly, humanity. Frank had a true joy of life and will be greatly missed. However, one never dies who lives in the hearts of those they leave behind.