The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022 83 Rabat, Belgrade, Herat, Berlin, Kabul, Riyadh, Erbil and, most recently, Rome. At eachmission where he was assigned, he served not just as a dedicated IT manager, but also as an integral member of the community, a leader, a mentor and a friend to all. He was a patriot, a certified diver, a private pilot and a car enthusiast. Those who knew him remember him as a kind, giving and active person who loved to be out in nature walking, biking and diving, playing sports and hosting game nights. Mr. Gilbertson is survived by his wife of 42 years, Beth; daughters Caitlin Gilbertson and Rachel Vinnedge (and her husband, Jared Vinnedge); mother Ardyce DeBurle (and her husband, Ben); father Don Gilbertson (and his wife, Gladys); brothers Scott Gilbertson (and his wife, Susan), Steven Gilbertson and Seth Gilb- ertson (and his wife, Cindy); nieces and nephews, in-laws and friends from around the world. n Patricia McMahon Hawkins, 72, a retired Foreign Service officer and former ambassador, died suddenly on Oct. 6, 2021. Ms. Hawkins was born in 1949. She attended Barnard College and was a graduate of East Stroudsburg University with a bachelor’s degree in education. She also studied French at Georgetown Uni- versity, the University of Dijon and New York University. After living for seven years in western France, Ms. Hawkins returned to Pennsyl- vania with her 2-year-old son, Fred, and joined the Foreign Service in 1980. Her first tour was in Paris, where she convinced the French administration to allow the first trans-Atlantic satellite reception antenna atop an important building in the capital. She also managed press affairs for President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 tour of the Normandy landing beaches, where he delivered the address widely credited with helping himwin reelection that fall. Later tours took her to Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and to Washington, D.C., and Burkina Faso. In 1989 she married Richard S.D. Hawkins, who left 25 successful years in the private sector to join the Foreign Ser- vice as a junior officer. The couple served together in Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, the Dominican Republic and, again, in Wash- ington, D.C. Near the end of their careers, the couple accepted separate assignments, with Ms. Hawkins serving as ambassador to Togo while her husband served two years in Iraq. After retiring in 2011, the couple settled in Santa Fe, where he had spent part of his childhood. Following her retirement, Ambassador Hawkins became an active officer of the Santa Fe and NewMexico chapters of the League of Women Voters. Family members remember her as a lifelong humanistic liberal, in the footsteps of her father who had worked to establish the Stroudsburg, Pa., chapter of the NAACP. Colleagues and friends recall that Ambassador Hawkins was always an enthusiastic, knowledgeable and realistic proponent of democracy and American ideals. She remained a sharp and insight- ful private critic of American foreign and domestic politics and policy, while never betraying her oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. They remember her generous spirit and welcoming demeanor, displayed in countless dinners and celebrations with friends in Santa Fe and across the globe. Ambassador Hawkins is survived by her husband, Richard; her son, Frédéric; and her daughter, Jessica. n Tyler Chapman Holt, 54, a Foreign Service officer with USAID, died Sept. 28, 2021, at his home in Bethesda, Md., after a valiant battle with brain cancer. The son of a U.S. Navy officer, Mr. Holt was born in Newport, R.I., on Nov. 7, 1966. He spent his childhood in Hawaii and Lafayette, Calif., graduating from Acalanes High School. As a 15-year-old high school exchange student with the American Field Service, he lived with a Rwandan family in Kenya and attended the Nairobi School for Boys with his host brother. This experience was the catalyst for his interest in interna- tional development. Mr. Holt received a B.A. in math- ematics and economics fromWesleyan University in 1988 and an M.A. in inter- national development economics from American University in 1997. In 1998, he met his future wife, the daughter of a Foreign Service officer, in Washington, D.C. The two married in Shepherdstown, W.Va., in May 2000 and departed days later for a five-year tour in Egypt with USAID. During his career as a Foreign Service officer, Mr. Holt focused on economic solutions to poverty, inequality, corrup- tion and lack of opportunity. He was fluent in Arabic and did much of his work in the Muslim world and Africa. Subsequent assignments took his family to the Philippines, Egypt again, Washington, D.C., Germany (for the Middle East Regional Platform, including projects in Tunisia, Yemen, Israel, Libya and Jordan) and Ethiopia, along with an unaccompanied year in Iraq. Most recently, he served as the entrepreneurial environment team lead in USAID’s Center for Economics and Market Development. The great joys of Mr. Holt’s life were his children, Lilly and Daniel. A lover of