82 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL missions around the world. Amb. González retired in 1988 but remained in Washington as a consultant to the department. In 1992 he returned to his permanent residence in California. There he served as foreman of the San Diego County Civil Grand Jury (1995-1996) and subsequently served on a committee appointed by the County Board of Supervisors that monitors the implementation of Grand Jury recommendations. For six years he served on the Hispanic Advisory Council at California State University, San Marcos. Amb. González was active in the San Diego Laubach Literacy Council, an affiliate of ProLiteracy Worldwide. He served as a volunteer tutor and director at a literacy center in San Marcos and on the board of directors of the council. For a number of years, he was chair of the Foreign Service Retirees Association of Southern California. Amb. González was predeceased by his wife of 68 years, Ernestine, in 2017. He is survived by his sister Mary; sons Carl, Paul (Larry), Greg (Cheryl), Rick (Lili), Chris, and Phil (Rhonda); a daughter, Caroline “Pepi”; and nine grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, and niece Laura and nephew John. n Alden Hatheway Irons, 85, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on September 10, 2025, at his home in Ashburn, Va., from complications due to Parkinson’s disease. Born on November 3, 1939, to Richard K. Irons, who taught history at Groton School in Groton, Mass., for 40 years, and his English wife, Audrey (née Radcliffe), he grew up on the school’s campus in an international family with a deep interest in foreign affairs. Mr. Irons attended St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H., during the mid-1950s, and spent a post-graduate year at St. Paul’s School in London in 1957 and 1958. He entered Harvard as a sophomore history major. Mr. Irons married Wellesley alumna Judith Ann Lisle in 1962, after his first year at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. A month later, responding to the State Department’s call, the couple landed in Mali for his first assignment, as the general services officer and then political officer. The couple’s first child, Catherine, was born there in 1963. In subsequent postings to Norway, Finland, Haiti, and Morocco, Mr. Irons held political, economic, human rights, and international labor reporting roles, as well as consular positions. Early in his career, between overseas assignments, he focused on post-colonial African political and economic affairs, a lifelong interest. In 1964 Mr. Irons was posted to Oslo as a consular officer. There, their second child, Stephen, arrived in 1967, about three weeks before they returned to the United States for their first Foggy Bottom assignment. The couple settled in Annandale, Va., with Mr. Irons working first in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, digging into the political, economic, and governance issues of Africa’s still-emerging postcolonial period, and then in the Executive Secretariat. Richard, their third child, was born in Washington, D.C., in 1970. In 1972 Mr. Irons was deep into his second year of Finnish language training in preparation for four years in Helsinki as the embassy’s labor and political officer. The assignment included planning for the Helsinki Conference of 1975, which led to new post–World War II cooperation among European countries, reducing tensions and increasing East–West exchanges. In 1977 Jimmy Carter’s ascendency to the presidency focused the State Department’s attention on human rights issues as never before. Mr. Irons landed on the front lines in Port-au-Prince, where he headed the political section, delivering U.S. protests about the brutality of Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier’s government. By the time he left Haiti, the country had few political prisoners. The Duvalier regime ended in the Haitian popular uprising of 1986. In 1978 the family returned to Washington, and Mr. Irons spent two years on the Inter-African Affairs desk followed by two years in human resources. In his last overseas assignment, Mr. Irons was the labor officer for Morocco and his wife, Judy, became the consulate nurse. In 1986, settling in Arlington, Va., Mr. Irons undertook a three-month assignment in the State Department Inspection Corps. After that, and for the rest of his career, he focused on international labor issues in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. In 1988 Mr. Irons converted to the Civil Service. Though he formally retired in 2002, he continued to work part-time. Friends described his role then as “the State Department’s institutional memory on labor diplomacy.” His career spanned 46 years—from John F. Kennedy’s presidency to Barack Obama’s. Mr. Irons is survived by Judith Ann Irons, his wife of 63 years, and their three children: Catherine Olson of Bourne, Mass.; Stephen Irons (and spouse Mei Tan) recently of Berkeley, Calif.; and Richard Irons (and spouse Lisa D’Ambrosio-Irons) of Falls Church, Va.; and nine grandchildren. His two younger brothers, Clifford of Newbury, Mass., and David of New York City, also live on. In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes a gift in memory of Alden Irons to the Parkinson’s Foundation at https://parkinson.org.
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