The Foreign Service Journal - January/February 2018

96 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL making new friends—some of them also retired State Department employees. Her pocket-size calendar became so full with inked-in engagements, friends recall, they had to book time with her well in advance. Family members knew Susan was rich in friends from various places and periods of her life. But their number and devotion, seen especially in the last weeks, remained a revelation—and, they remem- ber fondly, surely a reflection of Susan’s commitment to being a faithful friend. Ms. Lively is survived by her sis- ter, Kit Lively (and her husband, Sam Hodges); brother, Thad Lively (and his wife, Elizabeth); nephews, Pierce Lively and Will Lively; and a namesake, Susan Stromquist. Family members would like to thank especially the nursing and hos- pice teams of Goodwin House, as well as other Goodwin staff, who provided such good care for her and her family. Those wishing tomake a gift inMs. Lively’s honor may consider Centre Col- lege of Kentucky or Miriam’s Kitchen, 2401 Virginia Ave. NW, Washington DC 20037. n Aida Nercess Marks, the wife of retired Foreign Service Officer Edward Marks, died on July 3, 2017, in Washing- ton, D.C. Aida Marks, the daughter of Raffi and Gerselia Nercess, was raised in Tehran and earned her baccalaureate diploma fromLycee Razi. She met andmarried FSO EdwardMarks in Nairobi in 1963. An active partner in her husband’s diplomatic career for almost four decades, Mrs. Marks accompanied himon assign- ments to Nuevo Laredo (1963-1965), Luanda (1965-1966), Lusaka (1966-1969) and Brussels, where they arrived in 1971. Mrs. Marks gracefully fulfilled the social and American community responsibili- ties of a senior American diplomat during her husband’s assignments to Colombo as deputy chief of mission, and to Guinea- Bissau and Cabo Verde as U.S. ambassador from 1977 to 1980. She joined him in New York on his last diplomatic assignment, as deputy U.S. representative to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and later in Honolulu, when he was recalled to serve as the State Department adviser on terrorism to the U.S. Pacific Command from 2002 to 2005. Mrs. Marks volunteered at the White House and was a real estate agent with the Long and Foster firm in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. She was an active member of the Soorp Khatch Church community. In addition to Ambassador Marks, Mrs. Marks is survived by her brothers, Vahe and Edwin Nercess, and their fami- lies of Miami, Fla., and extended family members. n WilliamHarrisonMarsh, 86, a retired Foreign Service officer, died peace- fully in his sleep on Sept. 26, 2017, at his home in Upper Marlboro, Md. Born in Scranton, Pa., in 1931, Mr. Marsh attended Cornell University, where he majored in government studies and graduated with honors. He spent two years as a lieutenant in the Air Force, serving as an adjutant to the general staff in Tokyo. He then attended the WoodrowWilson School at Princeton University. Mr. Marsh joined the Foreign Service in 1960. InMay 1962 he married Ruth Ann Beard of Ponca City, Okla., his beloved companion until her death in 2011. After intensive study of Vietnamese language, he was posted to Saigon from 1963 to 1966 as a political officer. As head of the embassy’s provincial reporting unit created to analyze the social, political and security situation in the Vietnamese countryside, he later recounted that the greatest lesson he learned was that in a nonconventional war “the matters of war were much too important to be left solely tomilitary people.” Mr. Marsh then returned toWashing- ton, D.C., to State’s Vietnamdesk, and from 1972 to 1974 he served on the U.S. delegation to the Vietnampeace talks in Paris. In 1976, by now director of the France desk, he was deeply involved in relations with America’s oldest ally and played a significant role in visits to the United States by French leaders Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and François Mitterrand. During the 1980s, Mr. Marsh’s focus changed to the Middle East, where he was assigned to Saudi Arabia. As political-mili- tary counselor, he negotiated the deploy- ment of the AWAC system to the area to monitor Soviet activity in and around Afghanistan. As the ColdWar intensified, Mr. Marsh was instrumental in garnering crucial stra- tegic assent fromBelgium to deploy cruise missiles to counter the threat of the Soviet tank buildup in Eastern Europe. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he served as deputy chief of mis- sion at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. Mr. Marsh capped his career as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome, where he received a presidential award for his oversight of airdropped food provisions to starving refugees during the KosovoWar. After retiring in 1996, Mr. Marsh was called back to serve as senior adviser for European affairs to the U.S. delegation to the General Assembly in New York City. He served in this capacity for nine years until his wife’s failing healthmade it impossible. Mr. Marsh lovedmusic and was devoted to opera. One of his favorite arias