The Foreign Service Journal, April 2009

A P R I L 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 55 Edna A. Boorady , 87, a retired For- eign Service Reserve officer and a lead- ing force in the creation of the U.S. Agency for International Development, died on Nov. 8, 2008, in Dunkirk, N.Y. Ms. Boorady was born in Dunkirk on March 13, 1921. An alumna of St. Mary’s Academy, she left for Washing- ton, D.C., in 1941 to begin her federal career in the Office of Price Adminis- tration. In 1944, she became principal aide to the chief of mission to the U.S. Rehabilitation and Relief Administra- tion’s office in Albania. In 1947, she entered FordhamUni- versity, graduating magna cum laude in 1951 and proceeding to Cornell Uni- versity Law School. There she re- ceived her law degree in 1954, speciali- zing in international affairs. She was elected to the board of directors of the Cornell Law Quarterly. Ms. Boorady then joined the Inter- national Cooperation Administration as an attorney-adviser, and in 1958 be- came the regional attorney for the Far East. Instrumental in the creation of USAID, she served as director of the agency’s Office of Personnel andMan- agement and spent seven years in Thailand as its regional legal adviser. In 1972, Ms. Boorady was pro- moted to Foreign Service Reserve of- ficer, Class 1, the highest career rank in the USAID system. Two years later, she returned to Washington to direct the Office of Special Assistance for Labor Relations. And in 1977, she was sworn in as director of USAID’s mis- sion in Guyana, the first woman to di- rect an overseas mission in the history of the foreign aid program. She was one of six recipients of the 15th Annual Federal Women’s Award in 1974, given for outstanding achieve- ment by women in federal service. Prior to that, she had been nominated for the Federal Bar Association’s pres- tigious Justice Tom C. Clark Award and the USAID Woman of the Year Award. She is listed in Who’s Who of American Women. Ms. Boorady retired in 1986, hav- ing served overseas for a total of 20 years. She settled in her hometown, Dunkirk, where she and a brother es- tablished the Boorady Reading Center. She was a member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish and its Ladies Guild, the League of Women Voters, the Federal Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association. Survivors include three brothers, Edward F. Boorady, Richard J. Boor- ady and Robert T. Boorady, all of Dun- kirk; and several nieces and nephews. Jules Bassin , 94, a retired FSO and U.S. Army colonel, who headed the Law Division during General Douglas MacArthur’s occupation of Japan and participated in the negotiation of the peace treaty with Tokyo following World War II, passed away on Jan. 23. Mr. Bassin was active for more than 40 years on four continents in a variety of military, diplomatic, legal and senior State Department posts. His zest, in- sights and contributions to the great historic and cultural events he experi- enced were relayed in later years to friends and family through his humble and entertaining stories. His sons al- ways urged him to write a book. He was mentally sharp until the end. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on April 16, 1914, Mr. Bassin received his bache- lor’s degree in history and mathemat- ics from the City College of New York in 1936, where he was a member of the Reserve Officers Training Corps. In 1938, he earned a J.D. fromNew York University Law School. His interest in foreign affairs was developed while practicing international law from 1938 until 1942 in New York. In 1942, Mr. Bassin began serving in the army as the military police com- pany commander and head of the Criminal Investigation Division in the Panama Canal Zone. Just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Canal Zone was considered to be in potential danger. But once the tide turned in the Pacific, and it was clear that the final battles would not be in the Americas, the Army sent him to Harvard University and the University of Virginia for training in military gov- I N M EMORY