THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH-APRIL 2026 73 IN MEMORY n Frank Branch Crump, 89, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on December 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Born on July 25, 1936, Mr. Crump grew up in the farming community of Enfield, N.C. He graduated, in a class of 20, from Enfield High School in 1954 and then attended Wake Forest College and the Russian Institute (now the Harriman Institute) of Columbia University. In 1964 he joined the U.S. Foreign Service, launching a diplomatic career he found professionally and personally rewarding. After his first posting, in London, Mr. Crump focused on Africa. After a posting in Lusaka, he completed a master’s degree in international relations with an Africa specialization at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1971. He then served as U.S. consul in Kisangani, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), from 1971 to 1973, before pivoting back to his original focus on Russia. After working on nonproliferation issues in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Mr. Crump was assigned to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) as a Russia analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. His final assignment was to U.S. Embassy Riyadh. After retiring in 1989, Mr. Crump worked at Embassy Moscow, where he and his wife interviewed applicants for U.S. political asylum during the dramatic period of the Soviet Union’s dissolution. From 1992 to 2018, Mr. Crump worked on human rights issues for the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. He researched asylum issues for use by U.S. asylum officers and edited the State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights. In between, at age 70, Mr. Crump completed a stint as deputy head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Yerevan. In 2018, at age 82, Mr. Crump retired for good. Until his late 80s, he remained an enthusiastic tennis player and enjoyed research on his family history and choral singing. Family and friends recall that he was a good-natured contrarian who both enjoyed and believed in the value of broadranging and open-minded discussion of politics, there was little he loved as much as discussing world events over a meal. Mr. Crump was predeceased by his son, William (and spouse Deb); sibling Harriette (and spouse John) Partin; and his first wife, Anne Petersen. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Donna Newby Crump of Arlington, Va.; two daughters, Anne Avery of Fort Collins, Colo., and Catherine Crump (and spouse Bryson Bennett) of Berkeley, Calif.; and four grandchildren, Haley Avery, Corvus Crump, Nathan Bennett-Crump, and Theodore Bennett-Crump. n Betty Coxson Dols, 91, a Foreign Service spouse, died peacefully on December 17, 2025, at her retirement community in Alexandria, Va. Ms. Dols was born in Littlestown, Pa., on April 8, 1934. In 1952 she graduated from Littlestown High School and in 1954 from Garfield Nursing School in Washington, D.C. Ms. Dols met Emmett Coxson, an Air Force veteran and diplomat with the U.S. State Department, at Grace Lutheran Church in Washington, D.C. They married on Thanksgiving Day in 1957 and settled in Alexandria, Va. Shortly afterward, the couple moved to Ecuador for Mr. Coxson’s first overseas assignment. Their children were born at successive posts: Gregory in Ecuador, Molly in Sudan, Sue in Romania, and Andrea in Washington, D.C. Ms. Dols worked as an embassy nurse at several posts. Following Mr. Coxson’s death in Prague in 1972, Ms. Dols married Air Force veteran and Foreign Service Officer Richard Dols in 1974. They blended their families and moved to Wellington, New Zealand, for Mr. Dols’ four-year posting, then moving to Alexandria, Va. In 2002 the couple relocated to Midlothian, Va., and in 2020 Ms. Dols returned to Alexandria, taking up residence at Goodwin House retirement community. Ms. Dols had many interests, but her enduring passion was flower arranging. She discovered Ikebana International while living in New Zealand and joined an Ikebana group and Garden Club when she returned to Virginia. Ms. Dols won many ribbons for her arrangements and became a certified flower judge. She continued to arrange flowers for Goodwin House until she was no longer able to. She always carried secateurs in her walker. Active in her church, Ms. Dols served in Circle, choir, flower committee, and outreach. She founded and served as president of a Parkinson’s support group in Midlothian. Ms. Dols was predeceased by her second husband, Richard Dols, in 2006. Ms. Dols is survived by four children from her first marriage, Gregory Emmett Coxson, Kristin Marie “Molly” Gill (and spouse Tony), Susan Irina Stufflebeam, and Andrea Meredith Keum; three stepchildren from her second marriage, Sheilah Jean Lose, Richard Stephen (and spouse Steve) Dols, and Jonathan Reidy Dols; and 17 grandchildren—Gabriel, Michael, Daniel, Nathaniel, Kelly, Steven, Zachary, Jacob, Claire, Molly, Joseph, Julia, Kevin, Marcus, Corinna, Madeleine (“Maddi”), and Toril (“Tori”)—and one great-grandchild expected in March.
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