The Foreign Service Journal - March 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2018 77 scattered along the beaches of Bermuda, the island of his birth. Mr. Heater is survived by his chil- dren, Robert Michael Heater andMaria Anneliese Heater; and by his former wife, Teresa Ledesma, also a retired Foreign Service officer. n Robert Allan Kohn, 77, a retired Foreign Service officer with both the State Department and the Foreign Commercial Service, died on Dec. 8, 2017, inWashing- ton, D.C. Mr. Kohn was born and raised in New York City. He attended Columbia College, receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1962, and later obtained his master’s degree from The George Washington University. During a 42-year diplomatic career, Mr. Kohn served with the Department of Com- merce, Department of State, White House Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the United Nations. Mr. Kohn joined the Foreign Service in 1962, and his first overseas posting was to Australia that year. Other early post- ings as a political officer were to Peru and Brazil, in addition to assignments at the State Department as officer-in-charge of congressional affairs and of refugee and migration affairs. Following postings inMexico (1972- 1976) and Peru (1976-1979), Mr. Kohn was named a U.S. delegate to the United Nations (1980-1981), where he successfully aided in blocking Cuba’s candidacy for the Security Council. Mr. Kohn took on increasingly senior trade positions abroad, serving as deputy assistant U.S. trade representative for the Western Hemisphere in the Executive Office of the President from 1981 to 1983. In this capacity he helped develop the Caribbean Basin Initiative, negotiated the U.S.-Mexican Trucking Agreement and worked onMexico’s accession to the Gen- eral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. After assignments in Portugal and Greece (1983-1987) and Spain (1987-1992), Mr. Kohn served as commercial counselor inThe Netherlands (1992-1993) and as minister for commercial affairs in Germany (1993-1998). He also served on the U.S. delegation to the Organization of American States and lectured extensively on trade liberalization throughout Latin America. In 1998, Mr. Kohn was a participant in the yearlong Senior Seminar for leader- ship training at the Department of State. He then served as diplomat-in-residence and Department of Commerce chairman at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, in Washington, D.C., and, concurrently, as an adjunct professor of international business at Georgetown University. Mr. Kohn retired in 2004 after serving as minister for commercial affairs in Paris. During his career, Mr. Kohn received many awards, including: the U.S. Depart- ment of the Army Commander’s Award for Public Service; the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal for creating the “Showcase Europe” initiative; various State Department awards for outstand- ing political reporting in Brazil and Peru; the Medal of the Republique Française; Spain’s highest civilian award, the Orden de Merito; the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany’s Excellence Award; and the Netherlands Founda- tion Outstanding Award (the only other recipients have been President George H.W. Bush, Secretary of State Alexander Haig and New York Mayor Ed Koch). He also received the Athens Chamber of Commerce “Arista” Medal, Hellenic- American Chamber of Commerce Out- standing Award, Industrial College of the Armed Forces Teacher of the Year and sev- eral Department of Commerce sustained superior performance awards. After retiring, Mr. Kohn served as presi- dent for North America of the Greater Paris Investment Agency, lectured on history and politics on cruise ships and became quite a good Chinese food chef. Prior to his death he had begun intermediate Chinese lessons to add tomore than a dozen lan- guages he spoke fluently. But his biggest passion was spoiling his grandchildren. Mr. Kohn leaves his wife of 50 years, Rose Kohn; sons Robert and Aaron; and four grandchildren: Natalie, David, Alexan- der and Aaron. n Elizabeth “Betty” Mein, 95, the widow of Ambassador John GordonMein, died on Oct. 4, 2017, inWashington, D.C. Born Elizabeth Ann Clay on April 8, 1922, to Harold and Bessie, Mrs. Mein grew up in northeast Washington, D.C. She graduated cum laude fromPembroke Col- lege in 1944 and served in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. In 1946, she married Foreign Service Officer John GordonMein, and together they served in Italy, Norway, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brazil and Guatemala. One highlight of these years was hosting Gen- eral Douglas MacArthur and his wife when they returned to the Philippines in 1962. Mr. Mein was assassinated in 1968 while serving as the ambassador to Guatemala, andMrs. Mein returned to Maryland. In 1974 she married George C. Taylor, who died in 1986. Mrs. Mein was active in her church for 71 years, singing in the choir right up until the Sunday before her passing. She served as president of the Women’s Missionary Society and started a group dedicated to working with patients from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. In her later years she enjoyed traveling with Global Volunteers, Elderhostel (now Road Scholar) and ChurchWorld Service.