The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2023

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2023 85 diplomatic relations were established with the U.S. In October 1975, he departed Mozam- bique by road with two U.S. Information Service vehicles, stopping only to pick up his two daughters at school in Swaziland, before continuing on to his ongoing post in Johannesburg. There he was branch public affairs officer and directed the U.S. Cultural Center. During this stint, he established a USIS reading room in Soweto. Following an assignment to the U.S. Information Agency in Washington, he spent the 1980-1981 academic year at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Govern- ment. He organized and led a seminar on U.S.–South African relations at its Institute of Politics. In 1981 he was assigned as deputy chief of mission in Gaborone. In 1984, following a bomb explosion that killed two American officials in northern Namibia, he took over as U.S. liaison office director in Windhoek. Returning to Washington in 1985 as a member of the South African Working Group, he traveled to 28 states and Puerto Rico explaining and defending U.S. policies in southern Africa. He became director of African affairs at the National Security Council in 1988. In 1989 Mr. Jacobsen was appointed U.S. ambassador to Guinea-Bissau, serv- ing there until 1992. He then served as assistant inspector general at USIA until his retirement in 1993. After retirement, Ambassador Jacob- sen followed his second wife, Monica, on her international assignments with UNICEF, and worked as a consultant in Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Morocco, and Indonesia. He served as an election supervisor in 1999 for the U.N.-sponsored referendum in East Timor and spent February-July 2000 in Dili as the lone U.S. official working to establish a liaison office in East Timor, the foundation for an embassy after independence. Returning to the U.S. in 2002, the couple purchased an inn onMaryland’s Eastern Shore and operated Sinclair House B&B Inn on Tilghman Island until 2007. Mr. Jacobsen’s first marriage to Linda Perkins Jacobsen ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, Monica Stecher de Jacobsen, of Easton, Md.; daughters Heidi Hannapel of Durham, N.C., and Kristina Bouweiri of Ashburn, Va.; son Karl-Eric Jacobsen in Brazil; two stepdaughters, Isabel A. Stecher and Claudia A. Stecher; 11 grandchildren; four step-grandchil- dren; and two great-grandchildren. n Sarah (née Debbink) Langen- kamp, 42, a Foreign Service officer, was tragically killed by a vehicle when biking in her Bethesda, Md., neighborhood on Aug. 25, 2022. Ms. Langenkamp and her family had just returned to the D.C. area following the evacuation of Embassy Kyiv and the conclusion of their tours supporting Mis- sion Ukraine. An exceptional Foreign Service officer, Ms. Langenkamp leaves behind a power- ful legacy of diplomacy, mentorship, and leadership in Ukraine, in the Bureau of European Affairs, and beyond. Born in San Diego on Nov. 8, 1979, Ms. Langenkamp moved with her parents to Oconomowoc, Wis., in 1983. She had three siblings. Her father, Dirk Debbink, retired from the U.S. Navy at the rank of vice admiral in 2012 after serving as chief of the U.S. Navy Reserve. Ms. Langenkamp attended Boston College, studying political science and graduating summa cum laude in 2002. She was a fluent French speaker after a year studying and working in Paris, a period that engendered in her a lifelong love of French culture and wine. Prior to her diplomatic career, Ms. Langenkamp briefly worked for the Scowcroft Group and with the Asia Foundation while moonlighting as a waitress and restaurant manager. She credited the latter jobs as having taught her customer service. She joined State in 2005 and served overseas in Haiti, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ukraine, with domestic assignments in the bureaus of Near Eastern Affairs, European Affairs, International Organi- zation Affairs, and, most recently, at the National Defense University. Volunteering to serve in Iraq in 2009, Ms. Langenkamp worked in the embas- sy’s political-military office, managing border control issues to block terrorists from infiltrating the country and manag- ing military drawdown issues as the U.S. military presence decreased. In 2014 the State Department elevated her to the position of deputy director of the Office of United Nations Political Affairs, a full grade above her ranking, where she supervised officers senior to her. As head of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement’s pro- gram in Ukraine, she was the heart and soul of Embassy Kyiv’s anti-corruption efforts, and she brought her intellect, diplomatic skill, and strategic vision to strengthening Ukraine’s democracy. When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Ms. Langenkamp and her husband Dan, the embassy press attaché, made the difficult decision to serve apart from their children, who were evacuated, to continue supporting Ukraine. She deliv- ered resources and assistance to support Ukraine’s efforts and also cared for her Ukrainian colleagues, helping get them to safety and supporting them as they continued their mission.