The Foreign Service Journal, March 2012

72 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 1 2 ice in 1967, serving until 1987. During his 20-year diplomatic career he was as- signed to Venezuela, Romania, Italy, Sri Lanka, West Berlin and Washington, D.C. On retiring from the Foreign Serv- ice, he began a third career in the Of- fice of International Programs and Development for the State University of New York. After 10 years in that ca- pacity, he retired again, and subse- quently devoted his time to various boards and organizations, including the Aging Services Foundation of Greene County, the Mid-Hudson Library Sys- tem Board and the Haines Falls Free Library Board. Mr. Oppen is survived by his wife of 43 years, Pamela Jaeckel Oppen; his two children, Jessica Oppen of Boulder, Colo., andMax Oppen of Hunter, N.Y.; his sister Joyce Dyer of New York, N.Y.; his cousins Nancy Worssam of Seattle, Wash., and June Andersen of Chicago, Ill. Mr. Oppen was predeceased by his sister, Yvonne Golding. Donations may be made in his name to Doctors Without Borders at www. doctorswithoutborders.org or 1 (888) 392-0392. Catherine “Kay” Peaslee , 89, widow of the late FSO Alexander (“Sandy”) Peaslee, passed away at Westminster Village North in Indi- anapolis, Ind., on Jan. 10. Mrs. Peaslee graduated cum laude in 1944 fromMiami University. There she met her husband while they were both members of the political club. After graduation, she was an intern with the National Institute of Public Af- fairs and served in the office of Repre- sentative Jerry Voorhis, D-Calif. She was subsequently employed as a re- search assistant for the Senate Postwar Committee and by columnist Walter Lippmann. Later, in 1963, Mrs. Peaslee earned anM.A. fromGeorgeWashington Uni- versity in political science. She lectured at National Taiwan University, Dal- housie University, and Mt. St. Vincent University, and taught at Mount Ver- non Academy, Georgetown University, Yorktown University and George Mason University. At various times, she taught literature, history, govern- ment and international affairs. Mrs. Peaslee accompanied her hus- band, Alexander, who joined the For- eign Service in 1946, on his first tour, to Shanghai. In 1949 she was evacu- ated with their two young daughters, Sarah and Ann, to Joliet, Ill., to live with her parents while her husband spent many months as an involuntary guest of the Chinese Communists. Once he was released, Mrs. Peaslee and the girls rejoined him at his next posting, Brazil. A third daughter, Peg, was born in Hong Kong, and the fam- ily also spent time in Taiwan and Canada. While in Hong Kong, the couple opposed a State Department edict prohibiting criticism of U.S. foreign policy on the grounds that department personnel needed to be free to report whether policy initiatives were having the intended effect. This landed Mr. Peaslee on the enemies list of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis. After the birth of their fourth daughter, Eliza- beth, Mrs. Peaslee accompanied her husband to his last Foreign Service posting, as consul general in Halifax. The couple settled in Charlottesville in 1967, whenMr. Peaslee retired from the Foreign Service and entered law school at the University of Virginia. There they were staunch supporters of Common Cause and the Democratic Party. Mrs. Peaslee helped establish the Memorial Planning Society of the Piedmont and the Funeral Information Society of the Piedmont to help fami- lies who had been charged exorbitant rates for funeral services. She served on the boards of the Sal- vation Army, Downtown Charlottes- ville, Inc., the League of Women Vot- ers, and the National Organization for Women local branch, which named her Woman of the Year in 1995. From 1978 until she sold the busi- ness in 1988, Mrs. Peaslee was pub- lisher and editor of the Charlottesville Observer , through which she and her husband fearlessly pursued the cause of open government. Mrs. Peaslee produced a prize-win- ning documentary on the housing shortage in the area and hosted the local radio station’s public affairs pro- gram, “Community Conversation.” She served on boards of the North Downtown Residents Association and the McGuffey Homeowners’ Associa- tion. An active member of the McGuffey Readers, a book discussion group, she also volunteered with the Albemarle County Historical Associa- tion. She received fellowships from the Virginia Foundation for the Humani- ties in 1990 and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in 2000 to pursue work on a biography of the Virginia novelist Ellen Glasgow. Mrs. Peaslee lived a full life of com- mitted service to mankind on a big- picture as well as a personal level, even home-schooling two grandsons. She lobbied the Virginia General Assem- bly for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, attended Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic march on I N M E M O R Y