The Foreign Service Journal, March 2016

86 MARCH 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL n Gladys Ann Pollock, 80, a retired member of the Foreign Service, died in an automobile accident on Dec. 28. She was a long-time resident of Arlington, Va. A native of Beaumont, Texas, Ms. Pol- lock spent most of her career as a Foreign Service secretary for the U.S. Information Agency, rising to the highest ranks of her profession. She served abroad in London, Rome, Paris, Beirut, New Delhi, Tehran, Belgrade, Mexico City and Istanbul. Ms. Pollock was a talented artist. After retirement from the Foreign Service, she settled in Arlington, Va., where she pur- sued work in ceramics and papier-mache art. With a gift for interior design, she combined influences from the cultures around her with her own American sen- sibilities during her years overseas. The result was a warm and welcoming abode wherever she was assigned. Ms. Pollock is survived by a beloved sister, Dorothy Pollock Moore, and several devoted nieces and nephews in Texas and Florida, and by a host of friends who recently gathered in Washington to cel- ebrate her 80th birthday. n Ernesto Uribe, 78, a retired FSO with the U.S. Information Agency, died in Falls Church, Va., on Nov. 21. A Texan, Mr. Uribe grew up on horse- back, working in South Texas where his family had raised beef cattle since 1755. He was educated in the public schools of Laredo, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&MUniversity, earning two under- graduate degrees in 1960 and 1961 and a master’s degree in 1962. While studying, he worked as an assistant radio editor for the Texas state agricultural extension service. In 1962, he joined USIA as a bina- tional center grantee in Guayaquil. After two years in Ecuador, he was transferred to San Salvador. He formally joined the staff of the Foreign Service in 1966 and remained in San Salvador as a student affairs officer. He was commissioned as an FSO in 1970. During a 33-year diplomatic career, he served full tours in seven different Latin American countries. He witnessed eight coups d’état and several bloody upris- ings. He was a vocal advocate for greater Hispanic employment in the Foreign Service. He retired in 1995 as a member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of minister counselor. In retirement, Mr. Uribe published three works of historical fiction that drew on his foreign affairs experience, as well as his memoir, My Way . He enjoyed visiting his ranch in Texas, where he managed a herd of cattle and rode his horse. He is survived by his beloved wife of 56 years, Sarah Meade Uribe; their three children: Anne Uribe Cespedes, Ernesto Uribe II and August Orville Uribe; and six adoring grandchildren: Fernando R. Cespedes II, Sarah H. Cespedes, Oscar A. Uribe, Andreas O. Uribe, Ernesto T. Uribe and Daniel K. Uribe. Donations in Mr. Uribe’s memory may be made to the Boy Scouts of America, Texas A&M at Laredo, or the World Wild- life Fund. n John P. (“Basil”) Wentworth, 90, a retired Foreign Service officer, died on Oct. 3 in Mechanicsburg, Pa. Mr. Wentworth was born on Sept. 17, 1925, in Massachusetts. He served as a commissioned U.S. Navy officer from 1943 to 1950. He earned his B.A. from the Case Institute of Technology in 1946, and worked as an electronics engineer for Hughes Aircraft and Boeing as an electronics engineer and project designer from 1950 to 1953. He joined the Foreign Service in 1955 and began a 23-year diplomatic career traveling the world for the State and Com- merce Departments. After his first posting, to Mexico as a consular officer, he was transferred in 1958 to Cyprus. There he was shot and wounded in a terrorist assas- sination attempt during the civil unrest. Subsequent postings included Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Ethiopia and Israel. He served two tours in Washington, D.C., at the State and Commerce Departments, respectively. His last overseas assignment was to Australia, after which he retired in 1978. Mr. Wentworth is remembered as a master wordsmith and punster who loved to discover new words in many languages. He spoke French, Spanish, Modern Greek, Hebrew, Russian, Amharic and chiShona (the last are African languages). He wrote limericks and other poetry; composed chamber music, operettas and choral music; arranged music for band and chamber groups; and loved to sing. He played the tuba and euphonium in various brass and community bands and viola in community orchestras and cham- ber groups around the world. Friends and family members recall that he was kind to everyone, a real gentleman. Mr. Wentworth studied at Dartmouth College, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Foreign Service Institute and the University of Indiana in Bloomington. He was predeceased by his wife of 58 years, Jocelyn. Mr. Wentworth is survived by his children, Carolyn Henderson (and her husband, John) and Peter (and his wife, Jan Sullivan); and his grandchildren, Jenna Barron (and her husband, Alex) and Joe Henderson. n