The Foreign Service Journal, April 2013

70 April 2013 | the foreign Service journal Rae, Bailey and Olivia Rich; and Morgan, Garrett and Samantha Udell. Memorial contributions can be made to the Arizona Humane Society at http:// www.azhumane.org/how-you-can-help/ give/memorial-tribute-gifts/. n Norbert Joseph Yasharoff , 82, a retired Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Information Agency, died on Jan. 19 at his home in Arlington, Va., of compli- cations from a staph infection. Mr. Yasharoff was born to a Jew- ish family in Sofia. He recounted his childhood in a book he co-authored with Gabriel Mermall, By the Grace of Strangers: Two Boys’ Rescue During the Holocaust (Holocaust Survivors Memoirs Project, 2006). In the years after World War II, Mr. Yas- haroff immigrated to what became Israel. He later served for two years in the Israeli air force, and received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Hebrew Uni- versity of Jerusalem in the 1950s. After settling in the Washington area in the early 1970s, Mr. Yasharoff received a master’s degree in public relations from American University and became a U.S. citizen in 1976. Mr. Yasharoff worked over the years as a senior editorial writer, commenta- tor and policy officer for the Voice of America. A Bulgarian native, he spoke nine languages and had a special exper- tise in the Balkans. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he held positions as public affairs officer and director of USIA’s cultural center in Sarajevo, in the former Yugosla- via. He retired in 1989 after working for USIA for about two decades. Following retirement, Mr. Yaharoff did freelance writing for Bulgarian publications. He translated and edited several books, including two novels and a history of the early years of the Israeli state. He helped found an organization of retired Foreign Service officers and did volunteer work at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. His marriages to the former Halina J. Litman and the former Alvina Murphy ended in divorce. Survivors include two sons from his first marriage, Joe Yasha- roff of Potomac, Md., and Dov Yasharoff of Reading, England; and two grandchil- dren. n