The Foreign Service Journal, March 2015

72 MARCH 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Retiring in 1991, Mr. Muir returned to his first love, newspapers. He worked as a reporter and editor for The Poughkeepsie Journal, which was near the cedar and glass home he designed and built in Cold Spring, N.Y. Ten years later, Mr. and Mrs. Muir moved back to Washington, D.C., and then, in 2005, to Fredericksburg, Va., where he wrote features for The Free Lance-Star and indulged his passion for history by giving tours of the many battle- fields and sights in the area. Family and friends remember Mr. Muir fondly for his charm, the stories of his travels and exploits, his delight in his Scottish heritage and his fantastic mem- ory for dates and historical detail. As they recall, he loved his books, traveling around the world and watching old mov- ies and British mysteries on TV. Family members point also to his legendary love of feasting on crab, oysters and lobster. Mr. Muir is survived by his wife, Phyl- lis O. Muir; their three children: Linda M. Odell (and her husband, Craig) of Richmond, Va., Susan M. Trombley (and her husband, Larry) of Swanton, Vt., and Hugh Gordon Muir (and his wife, Betsy) of Naples, Fla.; his grandchildren: Erin Odell Cook (and her husband, Dan), Lee M. Trombley (and his wife, Tiffany), Ryan C. Odell, Justine L. Trombley, Kirsten E. Muir and Elyse M. Muir; and one great- grandchild, Cambria Trombley. Memorial donations may be made to The Presbyterian Church of Fredericks- burg Building Fund, 810 Princess Anne Street, Fredericksburg VA 22401. n Robert B. Oakley, 83, a retired FSO and three-time ambassador who attained the rank of Career Minister, died of com- plications from Parkinson’s disease on Dec. 10 in McLean, Va. Mr. Oakley was born on March 12, 1931, in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in Shreveport, La., where his father was an electrical engineer for a utility company. He graduated from South Kent School, a boarding school in Connecticut, and received a degree in philosophy and his- tory from Princeton University in 1952. He joined the U.S. Navy after gradu- ation and served in naval intelligence in Japan for three years, an experience which kindled his passion for interna- tional affairs. After a year of graduate work at Tulane University, Mr. Oakley entered the Foreign Service in the summer of 1957. He met his future wife, the former Phyl- lis Elliot, in Sudan, where he had been assigned and where she was a Foreign Service officer. They married in Cairo in 1958. She resigned from the Foreign Ser- vice, as required at the time, but returned in 1974, when the rules changed. The pair had postings in the Ivory Coast, Vietnam, France, the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York and Leba- non, in addition to Washington, D.C. Mr. Oakley specialized in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, and his perspective was profoundly shaped by his 1965-1967 tour in Vietnam, where he helped draft a Western-style constitution. He served as ambassador to Zaire (now Congo) from 1979 to 1982 and to Somalia from 1982 to 1984. For the next two years, which saw a rise in hostage crises and state-sponsored terrorism in the Middle East and Libya, he headed the State Department’s Office of Counterter- rorism. In 1987, Ambassador Oakley headed Near East and South Asian affairs on the National Security Council. In that role, he helped revive an “activist” policy in the Middle East after the embarrassment of Iran-Contra and the earlier Ameri- can withdrawal from Lebanon follow- ing deadly terrorist attacks on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. In August 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed him ambassador to Pakistan, succeeding Arnold Raphel, who was killed in an Aug. 17 plane crash along with Pakistan President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq. Amb. Oakley retired from the Foreign Service in 1991. But President Bill Clinton called him back to diplomatic service in 1993 after the Battle of Mogadishu, in which 18 Americans were killed and the bodies of U.S. soldiers were dragged through the streets. Amb. Oakley negoti- ated the release of Michael Durant, pilot of a downed Black Hawk helicopter taken captive by loyalists of the warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid. Amb. Oakley then retired from the Foreign Service for good. He went on to work as a distinguished research fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies Research Directorate at National Defense University until 2010, often writ- ing and commenting on international matters. Amb. Oakley is survived by his wife of 56 years, Phyllis; two children: Mary Oakley Kress of Falls Church, Va., and Thomas Elliott Oakley of McLean, Va.; and five grandchildren: Robert Kress, Andrew Kress, Peter Kress, Graham Oak- ley and Josephine Oakley. Memorial donations in his honor may be made to the International Rescue Committee, Development Office (122 East 42nd Street, New York NY 10168- 1289) or to American Near East Aid (1111 14th Street NW, #400, Washington DC 20005). n Robert White, 88, a retired FSO and two-time ambassador, died of cancer on Jan. 14 in Arlington, Va. Mr. White was born on Sept. 21, 1926,